Many families like the Mesochoristidae, Agetopanorpidae and Permopanorpidae, which were believed by earlier writers to be Mecoptera, are members of the stem group of the Antliophora (Diptera Mecoptera+Siphonaptera) or of stem groups of monophyletic groups of even higher rank (e.g. Mecopteroidea). Otherslike the so-called 'Protomecoptera' from the Permian of the Kusnetsk Basinare not even closely related to the Mecopteroidea. Only the families mentioned in the following phylogenetic system of the Mecoptera are definitely members of the order: 1 I FIG. 1. Phylogenetic relationships of the mecopteran families. Black squares: derived characters (a,-n3).Dotted lines indicate gaps in the fossil record. The extinct Xenochoristidae, Mesopanorpodidae and Triassochoristidae may also belong to the order, branching off earlier than the splitting of the Mecoptera into the Nannomecoptera and the Pistillifera. (The space between the Upper Permian and the Triassic is left because of the demands of the cladogram: it is not intended to reflect time span.)

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Abstract. The Rhachiberothinae, hitherto regarded as belonging to the Berothidae, are shown to be Mantispidae. They form the sister‐group of the Symphrasinae + Drepanicinae + Calomantispinae + Mantispinae. Within the Symphrasinae, Trichoscelia is the sister‐taxon of Anchieta + Plega. The raptorial fore legs of the Rhachiberothinae and the remaining Mantispidae, sometimes considered the result of convergent evolution, are one of their synapomorphies. The former inclusion of the Rhachiberothinae in the Berothidae was primarily based on symplesiomorphies; the Berothidae without the Rhachiberothinae are monophyletic.

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