Scorpion fly facts, habits, behavior

Scorpion fly fun facts, habits, behavior | diet, eating, flying | insect | Panorpa, Mecoptera | 4k video | Animal, Wildlife, Nature | #gotrails, #insect, #insectfacts, #ScorpionFly, #insects, #popularscience

As an unusual looking insect, scorpionfly has long beak-like mouthparts. Males have tails similar to stingers of scorpions. But scorpionflies do not bite or sting and they are not pests.

Scorpionflies may eat small insects. Here is an example.

For scientists, scorpionflies are often used as model animals for the study of insect mating behavior, due to their diverse and elaborate mating strategies and rituals: Male offers food to female as wedding gift. The food can be prey or salivary masses.

One interesting findings from scientists was that some species of scorpionfly have evolved with adaptive female-mimicking behavior: males may steal prey from others by mimicking female behavior.

[References]

Thornhill, R. (1979). Adaptive female-mimicking behavior in a scorpionfly. Science, 205(4404), 412-414.

Thornhill, R. (1983). Cryptic female choice and its implications in the scorpionfly Harpobittacus nigriceps. The American Naturalist, 122(6), 765-788.

Byers, G. W., Thornhill, R. (1983). Biology of the Mecoptera. Annual Review of Entomology, 28(1), 203-228.

Engqvist, L., Sauer, K. P. (2001). Strategic male mating effort and cryptic male choice in a scorpionfly. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 268(1468), 729-735.

Tong, X., et al. (2021). Traumatic mating increases anchorage of mating male and reduces female remating duration and fecundity in a scorpionfly species. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 288(1952), 20210235.