Thought this might interest you whilst out fishing. As you are well aware, the warm weather has brought out lots of insect life including this, a very unusual fly.
Unlike true flies of the order Diptera, Scorpion Flies have four wings and not two. These belong to the order Mecoptera. There are approx 400 species world-wide with some 30 resident in Europe.
Despite the horrific name attached to these insects, they mainly eat dead animal matter or fruit. The common name is derived from the visual effect of the tip of the male abdomen curving up onto the top abdomen - scorpion like but without the sting
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The female has a much more conventional abdomen.
The Scorpion fly prefers shady areas. The real distinguishing feature of species in this order is the downward extension of the head to form a strong beak.
The spotting on the wings varies between species with some not having any spots at all. It is very difficult to separate species and therefore I have only been able to identify these by their family name - Panorpa sp. The specimens photographed here are about 10mm long (body).
This posting is only a very basic introduction to this very interesting and unusual insect. I hope this is of interest.
The Scorpion Fly
Linear Mode
