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

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

FAMILY PANORPODIDAE

North American panorpodids, all in genus Brachypanorpa, have been found in the Appalachian Mountains and the mountainous Pacific Northwest.  They differ from Panorpidae in having a conspicuously short rostrum and unmarked, yellowish brown wings (Figure 5), as well as some less obvious structural characteristics. Females of some species are brachypterous (very short-winged) and flightless; those of other species have somewhat reduced wings and are poor fliers. The diet of adults is not clear, but they have been observed scraping the surfaces of herbaceous leaves with their mouthparts.

Larval Panorpodidae are eyeless.  Lacking prolegs on the ventral side of the abdomen and thick setae (as in Panorpidae) or fleshy projections (as Bittacidae) on the back, the larvae are described as scarabaeiform (resembling larvae of scarab beetles).

Figure 5. Brachypanorpa carolinensis is an example of a panorpodid.