Choristopsychidae is an extinct family of scorpionflies, known from the Jurassic of Asia. The family was erected by Andrey Vasilyevich Martynov in 1937 to house Choristopsyche tenuinervis from the Early Jurassic (Pliensbachian) aged Sulyukta Formation in Kyrgyzstan.[1] In 2013, two additional species in the genus Choristopsyche (C. perfecta and C. asticta) as well as a new second genus Paristopsyche containing the single species Paristopsyche angelineae were described from the Middle-Late Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation of Inner Mongolia, China. The family is noted for its distinctive broad wing shape, unique amongst mecopterans. Several members of the family have a distinct spotting pattern on the forewings.[2]

Choristopsychidae
Temporal range: Pliensbachian–Oxfordian
Paristopsyche angelineae
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Mecoptera
Family: Choristopsychidae
Martynov, 1937
Genera
Fossils of Choristopsyche asticta

References

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  1. ^ A. V. Martynov. 1937. Liassic insects from Shurab and Kisyl-Kiya, Part I, Various orders except Blattodea and Coleoptera. Akademiya Nauk SSSR, Trudy Paleontologicheskogo Instituta 7:1-178
  2. ^ Qiao, Xiao; Shih, ChungKun; Petrulevičius, Julián F.; Dong, Ren (2013-07-29). "Fossils from the Middle Jurassic of China shed light on morphology of Choristopsychidae (Insecta, Mecoptera)". ZooKeys (318): 91–111. doi:10.3897/zookeys.318.5226. ISSN 1313-2970. PMC 3744206. PMID 23950679.