| Fortiholcorpa Temporal range: Middle Jurassic, | |
|---|---|
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| Holotype | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Mecoptera |
| Genus: | † Fortiholcorpa Wang, Shih, & Ren, 2013 |
| Species: | †F. paradoxa |
| Binomial name | |
| †Fortiholcorpa paradoxa Wang, Shih, & Ren, 2013 | |
Fortiholcorpa paradoxa is an extinct species of scorpionfly (Mecoptera) from the Middle Jurassic of China. It is the only known species of its genus.
Fortiholcorpa was discovered in the Jiulongshan Formation at Daohugou Village of Ningcheng County in Inner Mongolia, China. The fossil is late Middle Jurassic in age, from the Callovian–Bathonian boundary (c. 165 million years ago). The genus name is a combination of Latin fortis (meaning strong, in reference to the "exceedingly elongate terminal abdominal segments and enlarged genitalia") and Holcorpa another Mecopteran with which Fortiholcorpa shows similarities. [1] The specific epithet paradoxa means amazing, in reference to the very long abdominal segments.
The holotype is a male 73.5 mm in length from head to genital tip. The thorax is poorly preserved, with only the mesothorax and metathorax recognizable. The 7th and 8th abdominal segments are exceedingly long in comparison to other segments. The compound eyes are large and oval-shaped. The antennae are filiform. [1]
Fortiholcorpa shares several similarities with Holcorpa, a genus formerly placed in the Panorpidae but now considered the sole genus of the family Holcorpidae. [2] However, Fortiholcorpa shows a different a branching pattern of hindwing M vein, and lacks spurs on the sixth abdominal segment. As such, the describers placed Fortiholcorpa as incertae sedis (uncertain placement) within Mecoptera. [1]
Mecoptera is an order of insects in the superorder Endopterygota with about six hundred species in nine families worldwide. Mecopterans are sometimes called scorpionflies after their largest family, Panorpidae, in which the males have enlarged genitals raised over the body that look similar to the stingers of scorpions, and long beaklike rostra. The Bittacidae, or hangingflies, are another prominent family and are known for their elaborate mating rituals, in which females choose mates based on the quality of gift prey offered to them by the males. A smaller group is the snow scorpionflies, family Boreidae, adults of which are sometimes seen walking on snowfields. In contrast, the majority of species in the order inhabit moist environments in tropical locations.
Nannochoristidae is a family of scorpionflies with many unusual traits. It is a tiny, relict family with a single extant genus, Nannochorista, with eight species occurring in New Zealand, southeastern Australia, Tasmania, Argentina and Chile. Due to the group's distinctiveness from other scorpionflies, it is sometimes placed in its own order, the Nannomecoptera. Some studies have placed them as the closest living relatives of fleas. Most mecopteran larvae are eruciform, or shaped like caterpillars. Nannochoristid larvae, however, are elateriform, and have elongated and slender bodies. The larvae are aquatic, which is unique among mecopterans. The larvae are predatory, hunting on the beds of shallow streams, primarily on the larvae of aquatic Diptera like chironomids.
Bittacidae is a family of scorpionflies commonly called hangingflies or hanging scorpionflies.
The Panorpidae are a family of scorpionflies containing more than 480 species. The family is the largest family in Mecoptera, covering approximately 70% species of the order. Species range between 9–25 mm long.
The Panorpodidae are a small family of scorpionflies. Of the two genera, Brachypanorpa occurs only in the United States, and Panorpodes occurs in East Asia, with a single species in California. Unlike their sister group Panorpidae, the family generally has short jaws, amongst the shortest of all mecopterans. Brachypanorpa is thought to be phytophagous, consuming the epidermis of soft leaves, and a similar diet is suggested for Panorpodes.
Eomeropidae is a 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 family are known only as fossils, with the earliest definitive fossil known from Liassic-aged strata, and the youngest from Paleogene-aged strata.
The Haifanggou Formation, also known as the Jiulongshan Formation, is a fossil-bearing rock deposit located near Daohugou village of Ningcheng County, in Inner Mongolia, northeastern China.
Dinopanorpidae is a small family of extinct insects in the order Mecoptera (scorpionflies) that contains two genera and seven species.
Dinopanorpa is an extinct monotypic genus of scorpionfly that contains the single species Dinopanorpa megarche and is the type genus of the extinct family Dinopanorpidae. The genus is known from a single hindwing specimen, the holotype, currently deposited in the collections of the National Museum of Natural History, as number "69173", and which was first described by Dr Theodore D.A. Cockerell in 1924. The name is a combination of the Greek deino meaning "terrible" or "monstrous" and "Panorpa", the type genus of Panorpidae the family in which Dinopanorpa was first placed.
Lichnomesopsyche is an extinct genus of mesopsychid mecopteran which existed in what is now China during the middle Jurassic period. It was found in the Daohugou Bed. It was named by Ren Dong, Conrad C. Labandeira and Shih ChungKun in 2010. Three species have been named, which can be distinguished by their differing male genitalia.
Mongolbittacus is an extinct genus of hangingfly in the family Bittacidae and containing a single species Mongolbittacus daohugoensis. The species is known only from the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation, part of the Daohugou Beds, near the village of Daohugou in Ningcheng County, northeastern China.
Panorpida or Mecopterida is a proposed superorder of Endopterygota. The conjectured monophyly of the Panorpida is historically based on morphological evidence, namely the reduction or loss of the ovipositor and several internal characteristics, including a muscle connecting a pleuron and the first axillary sclerite at the base of the wing, various features of the larval maxilla and labium, and basal fusion of CuP and A1 veins in the hind wings. The monophyly of the Panorpida is supported by recent molecular data.
Miriholcorpa is an extinct genus of scorpionfly (Mecoptera) from the Middle Jurassic period of China. The type and only species is M. forcipata, described in 2013.
Jurassipanorpa is a genus of fossil scorpionfly containing two species described in 2014 from the Jiulongshan Formation of Inner Mongolia, China. The two species, J. impuctata and J. sticta, lived in the late Middle Jurassic period. Upon description, they were claimed to represent the oldest known representatives of the scorpionfly family Panorpidae, but this was later questioned.
Eorpidae is a small family of extinct insects in the scorpionfly order, Mecoptera, which contains a single genus, Eorpa. Three Eocene age species found in Western North America have been placed into the genus: E. elverumi, E. jurgeni, and E. ypsipeda.
Holcorpa is a genus of extinct insects in the scorpionfly order Mecoptera. Two Eocene age species found in Western North America were placed into the genus, H. dillhoffi and H. maculosa.
Holcorpidae is an extinct family of scorpionfies. It contains two genera, Conicholcorpa which is known from the Middle Jurassic Daohugou beds of Inner Mongolia, China, and Holcorpa, known from the Eocene of North America, including the McAbee Fossil Beds of British Columbia, and the Florissant Formation of Colorado. Members of this family are distinguished by their unusually long male genitalia, as well as characteristics of their wing venation. Both Miriholcorpa and Fortiholcorpa from the Middle Jurassic of China also have affinities to this family, but the incompleteness of their remains and differences from known holcorpids make their placement uncertain.
Austropanorpa is an extinct genus of scorpionfly. It is the only member of the family Austropanorpidae. The type species, A. australis was described by Edgar Riek in 1952 based on two incomplete forewings from the Redbank Plains Formation of Queensland, of probable Eocene age, and was assigned to Panorpidae. Later, it was recognised as distinctive enough to be assigned to its own monotypic family by Rainer Willman in 1977. In 2018 the species "Orthophlebia" martynovae from the Early Jurassic (Toarcian) aged Cheremkhovo Formation near Lake Baikal in Siberia, described by Irina Sukacheva in 1985, was recognised as belonging to the genus. The genus is distinguished from other mecopterans by having nine branched radial sectors and four veins in the medial sector of both wings, as opposed to living panorpoids which are typically 5 and rarely 6 branched.
Choristopsychidae is an extinct family of scorpionflies, known from the Jurassic of Asia. The family was erected by Andrey Vasilyevich Martynov in 1937 to house Choristopsyche tenuinervis from the Early Jurassic (Pliensbachian) aged Sulyukta Formation in Kyrgyzstan. In 2013, two additional species in the genus Choristopsyche as well as a new second genus Paristopsyche containing the single species Paristopsyche angelineae were described from the Middle-Late Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation of Inner Mongolia, China. The family is noted for its distinctive broad wing shape, unique amongst mecopterans. Several members of the family have a distinct spotting pattern on the forewings.
Protorthophlebia is an extinct genus of scorpionflies, known from the Triassic and Jurassic periods of Eurasia. It was originally considered a member of the family Orthophlebiidae, but was later placed as the only genus within the family Protorthophlebiidae within the superfamily Panorpoidea.