''Caurinus tlagu'' is a species of scorpionfly in the family

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 ...

, a group known as snow scorpionflies. ''C. tlagu'' and was first described by Derek Sikes & Jill Stockbridge in 2013 in Prince of Wales Island,

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

. Its description made it the second accepted member of the genus ''Caurinus''.

Morphology

Visible morphological features of ''Caurinus tlagu'', along with the presence of cytochrome oxidase II gene sequences, help differentiate the species from its

sister species In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

''C. dectus''. ''C. tlagu'' is reddish-brown in hue and measures in length. When viewed from the side, it resembles a

flea Flea, the common name for the order (biology), order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by hematophagy, ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult f ...

; soft hairs are found sparsely throughout the insect's body, and the insect is covered with sclerites. ''C tlagu'' lacks

ocelli A simple eye or ocellus (sometimes called a pigment pit) is a form of eye or an optical arrangement which has a single lens without the sort of elaborate retina that occurs in most vertebrates. These eyes are called "simple" to distinguish the ...

and the rostrum is either reduced or completely absent. In ''C. tlagu'', hindwings are lacking, and female forewings resemble pads; male forewings end at the first section of the abdomen. The insect's hairless tarsi have five segments and include tarsal claws. The widest segments of ''Caurinus tlagus abdomen are the fourth and fifth segments, and the first two segments are fused. The mandibles contain two teeth, located below the apex.

Etymology

The specific epithet of this scorpionfly, ''tlagu'', is a

Tlingit The Tlingit or Lingít ( ) are Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. , they constitute two of the 231 federally recognized List of Alaska Native tribal entities, Tribes of Alaska. Most Tlingit are Alaska Natives; ...

word that roughly translates to "ancient". The insect was named "in honor of the place it occurs, its people, and history, in addition to the apparent great age of the genus Caurinus."

Ecology and habitat

The diet of ''C. tlagu'' consists of

liverwort Liverworts are a group of non-vascular land plants forming the division Marchantiophyta (). They may also be referred to as hepatics. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry ...

found in coastal, forested locations. Instances of the species have been found in open, clearcut spaces,

tundra In physical geography, a tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. There are three regions and associated types of tundra: #Arctic, Arctic, Alpine tundra, Alpine, and #Antarctic ...

, between trees, and heaths that contain alpine trees.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q16536645 Snow scorpionflies Fauna of Alaska Insects of the United States Prince of Wales–Hyder Census Area, Alaska Insects described in 2013