|
Mecoptera
Mecoptera (from the Greek language, Greek: ''mecos'' = "long", ''ptera'' = "wings") is an Order (biology), order of insects in the superorder Holometabola with about six hundred species in nine Family (biology), families worldwide. Mecopterans are sometimes called scorpionflies after their largest family, Panorpidae, in which the males have enlarged genitals raised over the body that look similar to the stingers of scorpions, and long beaklike Rostrum (anatomy), rostra. The Bittacidae, or hangingflies, are another prominent family and are known for their elaborate mating rituals, in which females choose mates based on the quality of gift prey offered to them by the males. A smaller group is the snow scorpionflies, family Boreidae, adults of which are sometimes seen walking on snowfields. In contrast, the majority of species in the order inhabit moist environments in tropical locations. The Mecoptera are closely related to the Siphonaptera (fleas), and a little more distantly to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boreidae
Boreidae, commonly called snow scorpionflies, or in the British Isles, snow fleas (no relation to the snow flea ''Hypogastrura nivicola'') are a very small family of Scorpionfly, scorpionflies, containing only around 30 species, all of which are boreal ecosystem, boreal or high-altitude species in the Northern Hemisphere. These insects are small (typically 6 mm or less), with the wings reduced to bristles or absent, and they are somewhat compressed, so in fact some resemblance to fleas is noted. They are most commonly active during the winter months, towards the transition into spring, and the larvae and adults typically feed on mosses. The adults will often disperse between breeding areas by walking across the open snow, thus the common name. The males use their bristle-like wings to help grasp the female over their backs while mating, while the wings of females are vestigial small oval pads with no ability to allow them to fly. The adults have a long Rostrum (anatomy), ros ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eomeropidae
Eomeropidae is a family (biology), family of aberrant, flattened scorpionflies represented today by only a single living species, ''Notiothauma reedi'', known from the ''Nothofagus'' forests in southern Chile, while all other recognized genera in the family are known only as fossils, with the earliest definitive fossil known from Early Jurassic, Liassic-aged strata, and the youngest from Paleogene-aged strata.Archibald, S. Bruce, Alexandr P. Rasnitsyn, and Mikhail A. Akhmetiev. "Ecology and distribution of Cenozoic Eomeropidae (Mecoptera), and a new species of ''Eomerope'' Cockerell from the Early Eocene McAbee locality, British Columbia, Canada." Annals of the Entomological Society of America 98.4 (2005): 503-514. Ecology ''Notiothauma'' adults are thought to be Saprotrophic nutrition, saprophagous with a preference for carrion, having been observed feeding on dead chickens and rabbits, though in one experimental study they were also observed feeding on plant material. Genera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meropeidae
Meropeidae is a family of tiny scorpionflies within the order Mecoptera with only three known living species, commonly referred to as "earwigflies" (or sometimes "forcepflies"), based on the earwig-like forceps-shaped male genitalia. The living species are the North American ''Merope tuber'', the Western Australian ''Austromerope poultoni'', and the recently discovered South American ''Austromerope brasiliensis, A. brasiliensis''. The biology of these species is essentially unknown, and their larvae have never been seen. The adults have been suggested to probably be saprophagous, though they have never been observed feeding. The fossil record of the group extends back to the Jurassic. The earliest known member is ''Boreomerope, Boreomerope antiqua'' known from an isolated wing found in the Middle Jurassic Itat Formation of Siberia. Other extinct genera include ''Burmomerope'' with three species and ''Torvimerope'' with one species are both from the mid Cretaceous (Cenomanian) aged ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nannochoristidae
Nannochoristidae is a family of scorpionflies with many unusual traits. It is a tiny, relict family with a single extant genus, ''Nannochorista'', with eight species occurring in New Zealand, southeastern Australia, Tasmania, Argentina and Chile. Due to the group's distinctiveness from other scorpionflies, it is sometimes placed in its own order, the Nannomecoptera. Some studies have placed them as the closest living relatives of fleas. Most mecopteran larvae are eruciform, or shaped like caterpillars. Nannochoristid larvae, however, are elateriform, and have elongated and slender bodies. The larvae are aquatic, which is unique among mecopterans. The larvae are predatory, hunting on the beds of shallow streams, primarily on the larvae of aquatic Diptera like chironomids. The adults are thought probably to be adapted to liquid feeding, likely on flower nectar and/or the juice of fruits. Adults of Australian and South American species are often found in habitats like the edges of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siphonaptera
Flea, the common name for the order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult fleas grow to about long, are usually dark in color, and have bodies that are "flattened" sideways or narrow, enabling them to move through their hosts' fur or feathers. They lack wings; their hind legs are extremely well adapted for jumping. Their claws keep them from being dislodged, and their mouthparts are adapted for piercing skin and sucking blood. Some species can leap 50 times their body length, a feat second only to jumps made by another group of insects, the superfamily of froghoppers. Flea larvae are worm-like, with no limbs; they have chewing mouthparts and feed on organic debris left on their hosts' skin. Genetic evidence indicates that fleas are a specialised lineage of parasitic scorpionflies (Mecoptera) ''sensu lato'', most closely related to the fam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apteropanorpidae
Apteropanorpidae is a family (biology), family of wingless Mecoptera, scorpionflies containing a single genus, ''Apteropanorpa'', with four named species, which are all endemic to the Australian island of Tasmania. Of the four known species, three occupy alpine habitats while ''A''. ''warra'' occupies lower elevations. Mature individuals inhabit vegetation. Adults are scavengers, feeding on dead and occasionally dying invertebrates, inserting their mouthparts into pre-existing holes in the body cavity to consume internal soft parts, very occasionally consuming the entire exoskeleton if present. Adults are startled and will run away at any sign of movement from prey. The larvae are not known with certainty, though probable larvae have been recorded from moss. The best-known species, ''Apteropanorpa tasmanica'', is known to carry two species of parasitic mites.Seeman, O.D., Palmer, C.M. 2011: Parasitism of ''Apteropanorpa tasmanica'' Carpenter (Mecoptera: Apteropanorpidae) by larv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Panorpidae
The Panorpidae are a family of scorpionflies containing more than 480 species. The family is the largest family in Mecoptera, covering approximately 70% species of the order. Species range between 9–25 mm long. These insects have four membranous wings and threadlike antennae. Their elongated faces terminate with mouthparts that are used to feed on dead and dying insects, nectar, and rotting fruit. While in larval form, they scavenge by consuming dead insects on the ground. Genera *'' Aulops'' Enderlein, 1910 (two species) *'' Cerapanorpa'' Gao, Ma & Hua, 2016 (22 species) *'' Dicerapanorpa'' Zhong & Hua, 2013 (eight species) *'' Furcatopanorpa'' Ma & Hua, 2011 (one species) *'' Leptopanorpa'' MacLachlan, 1875 (12 species) *'' Neopanorpa'' Weele, 1909 (ca. 170 species) *'' Panorpa'' Linnaeus, 1758 (ca. 260 species) *'' Sinopanorpa'' Cai & Hua in Cai, Huang & Hua, 2008 (three species) Extinct genera * †'' Baltipanorpa'' Krzemiński & Soszyńska-Maj, 2012 Baltic amber, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Choristidae
The Choristidae are a small (only eight species in three genera) family of scorpionflies known only from Australia. Their larvae are found in moss Mosses are small, non-vascular plant, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic phylum, division Bryophyta (, ) ''sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Wilhelm Philippe Schimper, Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryo ... mats. Species :This list is adapted from the ''World Checklist of extant Mecoptera speciesChoristidae' (unless cited otherwise) and is complete as of 1997. * '' Chorista'' Klug, 1838 ** '' Chorista australis'' Klug, 1838 ** '' Chorista luteola'' Westwood, 1846 ** †'' Chorista sobrina'' Riek, 1952 * '' Meridiochorista'' Lambkin, 1996 ** '' Meridiochorista insolita'' Riek, 1973 ** '' Meridiochorista ruficeps'' Newman, 1850 * '' Taeniochorista'' Esben-Petersen, 1914 ** '' Taeniochorista bifurcata'' Riek, 1973 ** '' Taeniochorista nigrita'' Riek, 1973 ** '' Taeniochorista pallida'' Esben-P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Austropanorpidae
''Austropanorpa'' is an extinct genus of scorpionfly. It is the only member of the family Austropanorpidae. The type species, ''A. australis'' was described by Edgar Riek in 1952 based on two incomplete forewings from the Redbank Plains Formation of Queensland, of probable Eocene age, and was assigned to Panorpidae. Later, it was recognised as distinctive enough to be assigned to its own monotypic family by Rainer Willman in 1977. In 2018 the species "''Orthophlebia''" ''martynovae'' from the Early Jurassic (Toarcian) aged Cheremkhovo Formation near Lake Baikal in Siberia, described by Irina Sukacheva in 1985, was recognised as belonging to the genus. The genus is distinguished from other mecopterans by having nine branched radial sectors and four veins in the medial sector of both wings, as opposed to living panorpoids which are typically 5 and rarely 6 branched. References {{Taxonbar, from=Q21344499 Prehistoric insect genera † A dagger, obelisk, or obelus is a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Panorpodidae
The Panorpodidae are a small family of scorpionflies. Of the two genera, '' Brachypanorpa'' occurs only in the United States, and '' Panorpodes'' occurs in East Asia, with a single species in California. Unlike their sister group Panorpidae, the family generally has short jaws, amongst the shortest of all mecopterans. ''Brachypanorpa'' is thought to be phytophagous, consuming the epidermis of soft leaves, and a similar diet is suggested for ''Panorpodes''. Genera The family contains extant 13 species in two genera: * '' Brachypanorpa'' Carpenter, 1931 (five species: United States) * '' Panorpodes'' MacLachlan, 1875 (eight species: Japan, Korea, California) Fossil species known from Eocene aged Baltic amber In addition, the following fossil genus is also known: * †'' Austropanorpodes'' Petrulevicius 2009 Laguna del Hunco Formation, Argentina, Eocene (Ypresian In the geologic timescale the Ypresian is the oldest age (geology), age or lowest stage (stratigraphy), stratigraph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orthophlebiidae
Orthophlebiidae is an extinct family of scorpionflies known from the Triassic to Cretaceous, belonging to the superfamily Panorpoidea. The family is poorly defined and is probably paraphyletic, representing many primitive members of Panorpoidea with most species only known from isolated wings, and has such been considered a wastebasket taxon. Systematics Orthophlebiidae Jurassic China Based on The genus '' Protorthophlebia'' has been moved to the separate family Protorthophlebiidae. * '' Burmorthophlebia'' Soszyńska-Maj, Krzemiński and Wang, 2022, Burmese amber, Myanmar, Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) * '' Choristopanorpa'' Riek 1950 Hawkesbury Sandstone, Australia, Middle Triassic (Anisian), Magyden Formation, Kyrgyzstan, Late Triassic (Carnian), Koonwarra Fossil Bed, Australia, Early Cretaceous (Aptian) * '' Cretacochorista'' Jell and Duncan 1986 Koonwarra Fossil Bed, Australia, Aptian * '' Mesopanorpa'' Handlirsch 1906 ** ''Mesopanorpa angarensis'' Martynov 1927 Chere ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Panorpa Communis
''Panorpa communis'', the common scorpionfly, is a species of scorpionfly. Distribution This species is native to Europe (Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Ukraine, and European Russia) and Northern Asia. Habitat These scorpionflies can be usually found in hedgerows and patches of nettle. Description ''Panorpa communis'' can reach a body length of about . The common scorpionfly has a black and yellow body, with a reddish head and tail. The male has a pair of claspers at the end of its tail (for holding the female during mating), giving it a scorpion-like appearance, although it is not a stinger. The adult insect has a wingspan of about , with wings that are mostly clear, but have many dark spots or patches. Its head, mounted with large eyes, is drawn into a prominent, downward pointing beak, which opens at the tip of its head. Females are longer, heavier, and have longer legs than males. In the female, the eighth abdominal segment ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
