The family Austropanorpidae (Mecoptera) was described by Willmann in 1977 from the Eocene of Australia, based on one genus and species, Austropanorpa australis Riek, 1952. During a restudy of the collection of the Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, a second and much older representative of this family was found. This specimen, described as Orthophlebia martynovae Sukatsheva, 1985 from Siberia (Russia), was considered until now to be a member of family Orthophlebiidae. We transfer this species to the Austropanorpidae, extending the age of this family back to the Early Jurassic. An updated diagnoses of the family Austropanorpidae and genus Austropanorpa are presented here.

The Family Orthophlebiidae ranges from the Middle Triassic to the Early Cretaceous. The Wealden Mecoptera have added to our knowledge of the Mecoptera from the Early Cretaceous of southern England, but have been comparatively little studied. Here we present the description of the first orthophlebiid from the Wealden of England. Mesopanorpa brooksorum sp. nov. from England is the earliest Cretaceous representative of this genus.

Twelve specimens of early Toarcian Mecoptera and Diptera from the vicinity of Wolfsburg were investigated for the present study. The material was found during house building activities in the 1980s at the locality Große Kley in Mörse, an urban district of the city of Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. The specimens were found in calcareous nodules of the Harpoceras falciferum Zone that occur within the Liassic black shales (Posidonia shale). Six specimens of Mecoptera, five belonging to the family Orthophlebiidae and one belonging to the Bittacidae, and six representatives of the following Diptera families were identified: Ptychopteridae, Limoniidae, Anisopodidae and the superfamily Mycetophiloidea. The fossil fauna of Wolfsburg is similar to that of other early Toarcian sites in Germany, described by Handlirsch (1906, 1939), Bode (1905, 1953) and Ansorge (1996) from Braunschweig, Dobbertin and Grimmen. Two new species are described, Mesorhyphusulrichi sp. nov. (Anisopodidae) and Archipleciomima germanica sp. nov. (Mycetophiloidea).