Northeast Mesozoic Mecoptera Fossil Insects

Eastern Inner Mongolia and Western Liaoning are located in the northeast part of China. It has preserved comprehensive deposits of long geological history, yielding abundant fossils. This area is one of the most typical areas in the world, with well-developed continental Mesozoic sediments. Most notable fossils from this area are from the terrestrial Jurassic especially in Jiulongshan Formation of Middle Jurassic and Yixian Formation of Late Jurassic, where abundant mecopteran fossils have been discovered, providing important evidence for the study of the origin and early evolution of scorpionflies.The present paper is a taxonomic study of the fossil Mecoptera from northeast China. First of all, the researching history on Mecoptera is given. Secondly, the morphology and biology are reviewed. Then the distribution, original evolution and phylogenesis of Nannochoristidae are discussed. At last, a taxonomic work on Jurassic Nannochoristidae and Mesopanorpodidae is presented. 20 species of 7 genera within Nannochoristidae and Mesopanorpodidae are reported.The genera and species in this paper are listed as follows:The genera: Protochoristella Sun, Ren & Shih, 2007, Atopochoristella gen. nov. , Mesochoristella gen. nov., Simplochoristella gen. nov., Gracilichoristella gen. nov.,Stylopanorpodes gen. nov., Netropanorpodes gen.nov.The species: Protochoristella polyneura Sun, Ren&Shih, 2007, Protochoristella formosa Sun, Ren&Shih, 2007, Atopochoristella dentata gen. et sp. nov., Atopochoristella longicornis gen. et sp. nov., Atopochoristella incisiformis gen. et sp. nov., Atopochoristella peltata gen. et sp. nov., Atopochoristella unguiculata gen. et sp. nov., Mesochoristella inaequinervis gen. et sp. nov., Mesochoristella crassinervis gen. et sp. nov., Simplochoristella echinata gen. et sp. nov., Simplochoristella arciformis gen. et sp. nov., Gracilichoristella pleiotoma gen. et sp. nov., Gracilichoristella senticosa gen. et sp. nov., Gracilichoristella trachypa gen. et sp. nov., Gracilichoristella oxyrrhyncha gen. et sp. nov., Gracilichoristella nodosa gen. et sp. nov., Gracilichoristella cylindrata gen. et sp. nov., Stylopanorpodes eurypterus gen. et sp. nov., Netropanorpodes decorosus gen. et sp. nov., Netropanorpodes sentosus gen. et sp. nov.The important critical characteristics of the genera and species are described. The specimens were examined with LAICA MZ12.5 dissecting microscope and illustrated with the aid of a drawingtube attached to microscope and the software of CorelDraw 12.All the type specimens described here are deposited in the College of Life Science, Capital Normal University in Beijing, China.