MECOPTERIDA (=Panorpida) - Scorpionflies, Fleas, Flies, Butterflies & Moths, Caddisflies The Major Groups of Holometabola Holometabola (=Endopterygota) Order Hymenoptera Superorder Neuropterida Order Raphidioptera Order Megaloptera Order Neuroptera Superorder Coleopterida Order Coleoptera Order Strepsiptera Superorder Mecopterida (=Panorpida) Antliophora Order Mecoptera - scorpionflies Order Siphonaptera - fleas Order Diptera - flies Amphiesmenoptera Order Trichoptera - caddisflies Order Lepidoptera - butterflies & moths (Peters, et. al 2014) MECOPTERA - Scorpionflies MECOPTERA - Scorpionflies SYNAPOMORPHIES • Head elongate, beaklike, with reduced terminal mouthparts • Labrum, clypeus, and frons a single sclerite, sutures obscure MECOPTERA - Scorpionflies SYNAPOMORPHIES (more obscure)
• No tentorial mandibular adductor • No hypopharyngeal muscles • Male abdominal segment 9 a ring without demarcation between tergum and sternum • Larval eyes similar to compound eyes, but histolyzed and replaced at pupation with adult eyes • No larval tarsal extensor or pretarsal muscle • Larval metathoracic spiracle nonfunctional MECOPTERA - Scorpionflies Diagnostic characteristics
• Head with elongate beak bearing reduced terminal mouthparts • Somewhat soft bodied • Light to dark brown in color • Wings often patterned • Fore wing = hindwing in size and venation • Filiform antennae, 14 or more segments • Male genitalia often bulbous and held curled over abdomen
Other features: • Mecoptera are very morphologically generalized within the Holometabola, retaining many primitive features • Many fossil forms; extinct fauna 3X more diverse than extant species! • Disjunct distributions probably reflect relicts of more widespread, ancient fauna MECOPTERA - Scorpionflies Diversity and Distribution 600 species worldwide; ca. 85 species (most in Panorpidae, Panorpa), in 5 families and 10 genera in North America
Panorpidae - scorpion flies • Largest family, primarily Northern hemisphere - Holarctic and Indochina • 380 species • Larvae with large eyes of many stemmata (25-30); also have scoli on abdomen - setae where larvae attach soil and feces for camouflage • Male genitalia large, complex, bulbous, curled dorsally over abdomen • Both larvae and adults predaceous and found in moist, forested areas among low vegetation • Males give nuptial meals - dead insects - to females to entice into copulation - females select males based on quality of meal • Some males present only a gelatinous salivary secretion - ritualized nuptial trophallaxis
MECOPTERA - Scorpionflies
Bittacidae - hangingfies or hanging scorpionflies • Second largest family, primarily Southern hemisphere - diverse in South America, Australia, only mecopterans in Africa • 180 species • Both larvae and adults predaceous and found in moist, forested areas among low vegetation - similar to Panorpidae • Have modified tarsi on each leg (one large pretarsal claw that folds against toothed second to last tarsal segment) - used to grasp passing prey while they hang suspended from vegetation by front or front and middle legs. Grasp with hind legs. Or fly up and down plant stems with waving motion of legs in search of prey • Cannot stand or walk on legs • Mating behavior similar to scorpionflies • Males attract females with pheromones from glands on dorsum of abdomen
MECOPTERA - Scorpionflies
Panorpodidae - short-faced scorpionflies • Relict group; 3 species in Southern Appalachians and 2 in Pacific Northwest (Brachypanorpa); 5 species Korea, Japan (Panorpodes) • Some females with rudimentary wings • Larvae without eyes, scarabaeiform, live in soil beneath grassy areas is woods, feed on plant matter • Adults scrape leaves and herbaceous vegetation for food MECOPTERA - Scorpionflies Apteropanorpidae • 2 species, Tasmania; wingless
Choristidae • Southern Australia, 10 species • Males with long tusk-like maxillary and labial palps - function unknown, perhaps to hold female during nuptial trophallaxis MECOPTERA - Scorpionflies Eomeropidae • 1 species, Chile, Notiothauma reedi • Related to following family, both with broad wings, held flat over abdomen and with many veins and crossveins Meropeidae - earwigflies • 3 species: Merope tuber, eastern North America, Austromerope poultoni, western Australia, and a newly described Austromerope species from SE Brazil • Males with large, forceps-like genitalia. M. tuber occurs in Minnesota; secretive, reported as occurring under logs, but certainly in vegetation as well; once considered very rare, but have been commonly collected in malaise traps set of Hymenoptera MECOPTERA - Scorpionflies Nannochoristidae • Most primitive mecopterans - “living fossils” • 5 species in SE Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, 3 species in southern Chile - Trans-Antarctic • Larvae are aquatic, occur in silt in shallow, slow streams - only aquatic Mecoptera - predaceous on larval chironomids and other Diptera larvae MECOPTERA - Scorpionflies Boreidae - snow scorpionflies or snow fleas • Holarctic, 24 species (Boreus, Holarctic; Hesperoboreus, western North America; Caurinus, western Oregon) • Larvae stout, curled; with or without thoracic legs • Larvae and adults feed on algae and mosses, where they can be found • Female’s wings short oval pads, males with short stiff hooklike wings for grasping female over back during mating • Emerge in late winter and early spring and can be seen walking over the snow - hence common name MECOPTERA - Scorpionflies Collecting and Preserving • These are inhabitants of moist, shady woods and forests, among shrubs, ferns, and herbs in the understory • Collect with a sweep net or with Malaise traps • Apterous species with pitfall traps or Berlese funnels • Pin adults; larvae in alcohol