Scorpionfly - Panorpa sp.
Order Mecoptera -- hangingflies, scorpion flies, scorpionflies, snowflies / Family Panorpidae -- common scorpionflies / Genus Panorpa Linnaeus, 1758
The name Mecoptera, derived from the Greek words "meco" meaning long and "ptera" meaning wings, refers to the shape of both the front and hind wings.
Live male and female scorpionflies photographed at Winfield Mounds Forest Preserve, DuPage County, Illinois, USA.

 


Male scorpionfly, Panorpa sp.

The Mecoptera (scorpionflies) are a curious group of terrestrial insects that usually live in moist sylvan habitats. Both larvae and adults are omnivorous. Mostly, they feed upon decaying vegetation and dead (or dying) insects. Larvae generally remain in the soil; they have chewing mouthparts and resemble caterpillars (Lepidoptera) or white grubs (Coleoptera). Most adults have an elongated head with slender, chewing mouthparts near the tip of a stout beak. Front and hind wings are similar in shape (occasionally reduced in size or absent), and often mottled with patches of color. The common name of this order (scorpionfly) refers to the distinctive appearance of male genitalia in members of the family Panorpidae: the terminal segments are enlarged and held recurved over the abdomen like the tail of a scorpion. Despite its appearance, the scorpionfly's tail is quite harmless.

Hanging scorpionflies, family Bittacidae, are predators of small flying insects. Their legs, especially the tarsi, are unusually long and slender. At the tip of each leg there is a single opposable claw. The adults hang from vegetation with their front legs and catch small flying insects with their middle and hind legs. These scorpionflies, which bear a striking resemblance to crane flies (Diptera: Tipulidae), may have developed from the same ancestral lineage that also give rise to the caddisflies (order Trichoptera) and the true flies (order Diptera). Hanging flies are the only predatory insects that catch prey with their back legs. (1)
 

Top row = males

Bottom row = females
Species of Panorpa are orange-bodied with an elongate beak, and their wings are mottled with dark brown markings. Males have a bulbous terminal genital capsule. Both soil-inhabiting larvae and adults feed upon dead insects. I was perplexed when I first ran across this specimen. I'd never seen anything like it before. At first, I thought it a fly, but then noticed two sets of wings (true flies only have one set).
 



References:
1. John R. Meyer  Department of Entomology  NC State University
 

              
 
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