Woodland Health:A column focusing on topics that might limit the health, vigor and productivity of our private or public woodlands

摘要

As you are walking in your woods or hiking in some of our beautiful Northeastern mesic woodlands, you may notice some rather unusual-looking six legged friends. Some of the most intriguing are Mecopterans, a rather unique order of Hexapods (aka insects). These unlikely looking "bugs" with their long, horse-like "faces" and chewing mouthparts are called Scorpionflies, and though it is hard to imagine, we actually know very little about some of these large captivating insects.Their common name is thanks to the males of the common Scorpionfly, which have a modified reproductive structure that folds up and over their back, very much resembling a scorpion's stinger. But, fear not, this charismatic little fellow does not sting. Oh, and it is not a fly, either, despite the "fly" in its common name, as it clearly has four wings (and real flies, in the insect order Diptera, have only two obvious wings and their hind wings are modified into tiny structures, called halteres, which act as balancers - these are why those pesky house flies are so adept at avoiding your flyswatter!). Of course, females do not have the "stinger" and so their abdomen is gently tapered and both males and females are generally yellowish brown with banded or spotted wings.