Editing Mecoptera (section)

==Diversity==

Mecopterans vary in length from {{convert|2|to|35|mm|in|1|abbr=on}}. There are about six hundred [[Neontology|extant]] species known, divided into thirty-four [[genera]] in nine families. The majority of the species are contained in the families [[Panorpidae]] and [[Bittacidae]]. Besides this there are about four hundred known fossil species in about eighty-seven genera, which are more diverse than the living members of the order.<ref name=Dunford>{{cite book|author1=Dunford, James C. |author2=Somma, Louis A. |editor=Capinera, John L. |title=Encyclopedia of Entomology: Scorpionflies (Mecoptera) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i9ITMiiohVQC&pg=PA3304 |year=2008 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-1-4020-6242-1 |pages=3304–3309}}</ref> The group is sometimes called the scorpionflies, from the turned-up "tail" of the male's genitalia in the Panorpidae.<ref>{{cite web |title=Scorpionflies (Order: Mecoptera) |publisher=Amateur Entomologists' Society |url=https://www.amentsoc.org/insects/fact-files/orders/mecoptera.html |access-date=5 July 2020}}</ref>

Distribution of mecopterans is worldwide; the greatest diversity at the species level is in the [[Afrotropic]] and [[Palearctic realm]]s, but there is greater diversity at the generic and family level in the [[Neotropic]], [[Nearctic]] and [[Australasian realm]]s. They are absent from Madagascar and many islands and island groups; this may demonstrate that their [[Biological dispersal|dispersal]] ability is low, with Trinidad, Taiwan and Japan, where they are found, having had recent land bridges to the nearest continental land masses.<ref name=Dunford/>