''Notiothauma'' is the sole living genus in the

scorpionfly Mecoptera (from the Greek: ''mecos'' = "long", ''ptera'' = "wings") 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 lar ...

family

Eomeropidae 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 kn ...

. 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 rainfore ...

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 in southern South America (Chile, Argentina) and Australasia (east and southeast Australia, New Zealand, New Gui ...

'' stands. ''N. reedi'' is flattened with a notedly

cockroach Cockroaches (or roaches) are a paraphyletic group of insects belonging to Blattodea, containing all members of the group except termites. About 30 cockroach species out of 4,600 are associated with human habitats. Some species are well-known as ...

-like in 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 an extant taxon that cosmetically 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 origin of the extant clade. Living fossi ...

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