A DIVERSE NEW EOCENE MECOPTERA (SCORPIONFLIES, HANGINGFLIES) FAUNA FROM THE EOCENE OKANAGAN HIGHLANDS (BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA AND WASHINGTON STATE, USA)

The insect order Mecoptera was unknown in the North American Tertiary entomofauna west of Florissant, Colorado, until three years ago, when a single specimen was reported from the Early Eocene Okanagan Highlands locality at Quilchena, BC. Since that time, a large and diverse assemblage of mecopterans has been discovered throughout the Okanagan Highlands, a series of Early to early Middle Eocene fossil deposits in British Columbia and Washington State. These now represent the most diverse Cenozoic fossil record of the order. Genera are present that were previously known only from the Tertiary of Denmark and Pacific coastal Siberia. These fossils are comprised of six families, including the extant Panorpidae, Bittacidae, and Eomeropidae, as well as the extinct Dinopanorpidae, Holcorpidae and Cimbrophlebiidae. Dinopanorpidae, previously known from a single hindwing, is represented in the Okanagan Highlands by 7 new species of a new genus, and is now known from complete specimens. A new species of the morphologically bizarre genus Holcorpa is now found at the Early Eocene McAbee locality in British Columbia, previously known only from the Late Eocene of Florissant, Colorado.