The first Permian scorpionfly from Germany (Insecta, Panorpida: Protomeropidae)
Abstract
A new genus and species, Glanomerope virgoferroa gen. et sp. nov., the first Permian record of a scorpionfly from Germany, is described from the Niedermoschel black shale, Meisenheim Formation, Lower Rotliegend of the Saar-Nahe basin. It is assigned to the Protomeropidae, the oldest known family of the holometabolous superorder Panorpida, ranging from the Bashkirian-Moscovian (Late Carboniferous) to the Roadian. It confirms that this family was very diverse in Central Europe during the Early Permian. Protomeropidae possibly became extinct in the course of major climatic changes that progressively affected the supercontinent Pangea after the Artinskian, although generally these changes seem to have more severely affected some other insects such as the palaeopteran Dictyoneuridae than holometabolous groups.