The Panorpodidae are a small family of

scorpionflies Mecoptera (from the Greek language, Greek: ''mecos'' = "long", ''ptera'' = "wings") is an Order (biology), order of insects in the superorder Endopterygota with about six hundred species in nine Family (biology), families worldwide. Mecopterans ...

. Of the two genera, '' Brachypanorpa'' occurs only in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, and '' Panorpodes'' occurs in East Asia, with a single species in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Unlike their sister group

Panorpidae 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. These insects have four mem ...

, the family generally has short jaws, amongst the shortest of all mecopterans. ''Brachypanorpa'' is thought to be phytophagous, consuming the

epidermis The epidermis is the outermost of the three layers that comprise the skin, the inner layers being the dermis and hypodermis. The epidermis layer provides a barrier to infection from environmental pathogens and regulates the amount of water rele ...

of soft leaves, and a similar diet is suggested for ''Panorpodes''.

Genera

The family contains extant 13 species in two genera: * '' Brachypanorpa'' Carpenter, 1931 (five species: United States) * '' Panorpodes'' MacLachlan, 1875 (eight species: Japan, Korea, California) Fossil species known from

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...

aged

Baltic amber The Baltic region is home to the largest known deposit of amber, called Baltic amber or succinite. It was produced sometime during the Eocene epoch, but exactly when is controversial. It has been estimated that these forests created more than 1 ...

In addition, the following fossil genus is also known: * †'' Austropanorpodes'' Petrulevicius 2009 Laguna del Hunco Formation, Argentina, Eocene (

Ypresian In the geologic timescale the Ypresian is the oldest age (geology), age or lowest stage (stratigraphy), stratigraphic stage of the Eocene. It spans the time between , is preceded by the Thanetian Age (part of the Paleocene) and is followed by th ...

)

References

Mecoptera Insect families {{Mecoptera-stub