Meropeidae

Meropeidae Temporal range: Triassic to Recent220–0 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Merope tuber
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Mecoptera
Family:	Meropeidae
Genera
Austromerope Killington, 1933 (Australia, Brazil) †Boreomerope Novokschonov, 1995 (Siberia; extinct) Merope Newman, 1838 (USA, Canada) ?†Thaumatomerope Rasnitsyn, 1974 (Kyrgyzstan; extinct)

Meropeidae is a family of tiny scorpionflies within the order Mecoptera with only three living species, commonly referred to as "earwigflies" (or sometimes "forcepflies"). These include the North American Merope tuber, the Western Australian Austromerope poultoni, and the newly discovered South American A. brasiliensis.^[1] The biology of these species is essentially unknown, and their larvae have never been seen.^[2] The disjunct distribution suggests a common origin before the breakup of the ancient supercontinent of Pangaea. There are two extinct genera, Boreomerope antiqua Novokschonov from the Middle Jurassic of Siberia and Thaumatomerope with four described species all from the Madygen Formation in Kyrgyzstan; as such, the extant members of this family can be considered living fossils. These insects are also of interest due to their presumed basal position in the order Mecoptera. Thaumatomerope is sometimes excluded from Meropeidae, and instead, is placed within Eomeropidae, or its own monotypic family, "Thaumatomeropidae."

References

1. Machado, R. J. P.; Kawada, R.; Rafael, J. A. (2013). "New continental record and new species of Austromerope (Mecoptera, Meropeidae) from Brazil". ZooKeys 269: 1–10. doi:10.3897/zookeys.269.4255.
2. Friedrich, F.; et al. (2013). "The head of Merope tuber (Meropeidae) and the phylogeny of Mecoptera (Hexapoda)" (PDF). Arthropod Structure & Development 42: 69–88. doi:10.1016/j.asd.2012.09.006. Retrieved September 26, 2014.

• Wills, Allan (2007). "Earwig Flies? Ancient and Mysterious Insects". Western Wildlife 12 (1): 5.