Ecology and Distribution of Cenozoic Eomeropidae (Mecoptera), and a New Species of Eomerope Cockerell from the Early Eocene McAbee Locality, British Columbia, Canada

Eomerope macabeensis sp. nov. (Mecoptera: Eomeropidae) is described from the Early Eocene (Ypresian) McAbee locality in British Columbia, Canada. This is the first record of the family Eomeropidae in the Okanagan Highlands fossil deposits of British Columbia (Canada) and Washington state (United States). Previously known Cenozoic occurrences of the family include Eomerope tortriciformis Cockerell 1909 from the Eocene of Florissant, CO; Eomerope pacifica Ponomarenko & Rasnitsyn 1974 from the Paleocene Tadushi Formation., and Eomerope asiatica Ponomarenko & Rasnitsyn 1974 from the Eocene or Oligocene Amgu River of far-eastern Russia; and the extant Notiothauma reedi MacLachlan, 1877, from southern Chile. The new species seems to be closely related to E. asiatica. Where environmental parameters are known, these occurrences are mostly from highlands, with upper microthermal to mid-mesothermal climates and mild winters. N. reedi is phytophagous or saprophagous. Although Cenozoic Eomeropidae are associated with Fagus, Nothofagus, or Fagopsis-dominated forests in the Western Hemisphere, the Fagaceae and Nothofagaceae are minor elements or not known in the Russian localities. Intercontinental dispersal by either Gondwanan or Beringian routes is possible.