Volume 48, Number 1,
May 2002:
Scorpionflies, Hangingflies, and other Mecoptera

Text-only version

ISSUE HOME PAGE

ABOUT THIS ISSUE
- about KSN
- about the author

IN THIS ISSUE
- The Order Mecoptera
- Fossils
- Modern Species
- Family Panorpidae
- Family Bittacidae
- Family Meropeidae
- Family Panorpodidae
- Family Boreidae
- Key to the Families of North American Mecoptera (Adults)
- References

SLIDESHOW
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Scorpionflies, Hangingflies, and other Mecoptera
by Geroge W. Byers

FAMILY MEROPEIDAE

Represented in North America by a single species, Merope tuber, this family also includes a species in Australia. The American species was known in the Atlantic states for many years but considered quite rare. Adults are nocturnal but phototactic (attracted to lights), and increased use of light traps—and also of flight-intercept and chemical traps—in recent years has led to finding that Merope is actually widespread, currently known from southeastern Canada to Georgia and westward to eastern Kansas and Minnesota.  The habitat is much the same as for Panorpidae.       

These are yellowish brown insects, about 8–15 mm long; body length and wing length vary greatly in both males and females.  Their grayish wings are divided into many cells by numerous cross-veins. Males are characterized by elongate, slender clasping structures at the end of the abdomen; the shorter abdomen of females tapers to a narrow tip. Larvae of Merope have not yet been discovered.  Virtually nothing is known about the behavior of meropeids other than their response to light.