Mesopsychidae

Mesopsychidae
Temporal range: Late Permian–Aptian
Lichnomesopsyche daohugouensis
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Mecoptera
Superfamily: Mesopsychoidea
Family: Mesopsychidae
Tillyard, 1917
Genera

See text

Mesopsychidae is an extinct family of scorpionflies known from the Late Permian to Mid Cretaceous. It is part of Mesopsychoidea, a group of scorpionflies with siphonate proboscis. They are suggested to have been nectarivores, feeding off the liquid pollination drops and acting as pollinators for now extinct insect pollinated gymnosperms such as Bennettitales.[1]

Systematics[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Lin X, Shih MJ, Labandeira CC, Ren D (January 2016). "New data from the Middle Jurassic of China shed light on the phylogeny and origin of the proboscis in the Mesopsychidae (Insecta: Mecoptera)". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 16 (1): 1. doi:10.1186/s12862-015-0575-y. PMC 4700641. PMID 26727998.