Notiothauma Reedi on:
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''Notiothauma'' is the sole living genus in the
scorpionfly
Mecoptera (from the Greek language, Greek: ''mecos'' = "long", ''ptera'' = "wings") is an Order (biology), order of insects in the superorder Holometabola with about six hundred species in nine Family (biology), families worldwide. Mecopterans a ...
family Eomeropidae
Eomeropidae is a family (biology), family of aberrant, flattened scorpionflies represented today by only a single living species, ''Notiothauma reedi'', known from the ''Nothofagus'' forests in southern Chile, while all other recognized genera in ...
. The genus is monotypic with a lone species ''Notiothauma reedi'' which is native to the Valdivian temperate rain forest
The Valdivian temperate forests (NT0404) is an ecoregion on the west coast of southern South America, in Chile and Argentina. It is part of the Neotropical realm. The forests are named after the city of Valdivia. The Valdivian temperate rainfores ...
s of central Chile, especially the forests with ''Nothofagus
''Nothofagus'', also known as the southern beeches, is a genus of 43 species of trees and shrubs native to the Southern Hemisphere, found across southern South America (Chile, Argentina) and east and southeast Australia, New Zealand, New Guin ...
'' stands. ''N. reedi'' is flattened with a notedly cockroach
Cockroaches (or roaches) are insects belonging to the Order (biology), order Blattodea (Blattaria). About 30 cockroach species out of 4,600 are associated with human habitats. Some species are well-known Pest (organism), pests.
Modern cockro ...
-like appearance. They are nocturnal and inhabit the forest floor where the adults feed on plants and decaying animals. The larvae are still unknown. Because this is the last extant species of Eomeropidae, ''N. reedi'' can be characterized as a living fossil
A living fossil is a Deprecation, deprecated term for an extant taxon that phenotypically resembles related species known only from the fossil record. To be considered a living fossil, the fossil species must be old relative to the time of or ...
taxon.
Phylogeny
The proposed phylogenetic relationships of ''N. reedi'' based on Soszyńska-Maj ''et al'' 2016.
References
Mecoptera Monotypic insect genera Endemic fauna of Chile {{Mecoptera-stub