Mecoptera Research Articles

Biodiversity and Spatiotemporal Variations of Mecoptera in Thailand: Influences of Elevation and Climatic Factors.

Ecological analyses of the small and lesser-known insect order Mecoptera in Thailand are presented. Specimens were collected monthly over a period of 12 consecutive months, using both Malaise and pan traps, from 29 sampling sites located in 18 national parks throughout Thailand. A total of 21 species in four genera were identified from 797 specimens, including Panorpa (1 species), Neopanorpa (18 species), Bittacus (1 species), and Terrobittacus (1 species), with the latter genus representing a new genus record to Thailand. Neopanorpa harmandi, N. siamensis, N. byersi, and N. malaisei were the most abundant species, representing 27.4%, 11.3%, 10.3% and 8.8% of the total specimens, respectively. The species with the highest frequency, as indicated by the high percentage of species occurrence (%SO), was N. siamensis (51%), followed by N. byersi (34%), N. harmandi (34%), N. spatulata (27%), and N. inchoata (27%). Eleven species (52%) exhibited specific regional occurrences. N. tuberosa and N. siamensis had the widest distribution, being found in almost all regions except for western and southern regions for the first and second species, respectively. The seasonal species richness of Mecoptera was high during the rainy season in the northern, northeastern, central, eastern, and western regions, with the highest richness observed in July (15 species), followed by the hot (10 species) and cold seasons (7 species), while there was no significant difference in species richness between seasons in the southern region. Multiple regression models revealed a negative association between species richness and abundance of Mecoptera with both elevation and temperature, and a positive association between rainfall and species evenness. It is predicted that climatic changes will have a detrimental effect on the mecopteran community. The results of this study enhance the understanding of the ecological aspects of Mecoptera, offering crucial insights into its biodiversity and distribution, which are vital for conservation and forest management.

A new hangingfly species (Mecoptera: Bittacidae) from the Paleocene Paskapoo Formation (Canada)

The order Mecoptera, commonly known as scorpionflies, has a long and fascinating evolutionary history that spans over 270 million years, if we consider its stem group. Despite their well-documented fossil record during the Mesozoic, many aspects of their diversity and evolution remain poorly understood. In this study, we increase the fossil record of Mecoptera by describing a new taxon from the Paleocene Paskapoo Formation (Alberta, Canada). This specimen is described as Bittacus? paskapooensis sp. nov. (Raptipedia: Bittacidae) but is assigned with caution to Bittacus due to the lack of apomorphic wing venation characters for this genus.

An annotated catalog of the type material of Mecoptera deposited in the Florida State Collection of Arthropods in Gainesville, Florida, USA.

The Florida State Collection of Arthropods (FSCA) is one of the largest and most valuable insect collections in the United States with more than twelve million curated specimens. The order Mecoptera currently comprises over 800 extant described species in nine extant families. The FSCA houses type material in the families Bittacidae, Panorpidae, and Panorpodidae. This catalog documents the FSCA type material for 23 species in five genera in Mecoptera.

The first record of the order Mecoptera in the Arabian Peninsula

In September, 2022, the first Mecoptera specimens of the Arabian Peninsula were collected in Oman (Dhofar province). The collected male and female specimens are conspecific with Bittacus chevalieri (Navás, 1908), which is widely distributed in the African Sub-Saharan grass savannahs and ranges from Senegal in West Africa to India. The occurrence of the species in the Dhofar Mountains proves that this area has an extremely strong influence on the African fauna. Male and female morphologies are figured by photos and genitalia.

Permian-Triassic insect diversity revealed by fossils from China

Most of the research on Paleoentomology focuses on describing morphology and classification of one species of fossil insects. However, there is little information on the temporal diversity of insects during the Permian and Triassic periods. The end-Permian mass extinction (EPME) was the greatest biological and ecological crisis of the Phanerozoic Eon on Earth, while the pattern of recovery of terrestrial ecosystem is still unclear. In this paper, the population and distribution of insects in various regions of China before and after the fifth mass extinction were studied by counting the fossil literature data of insects from the Permian to Triassic. We found the genus diversity of the proto-orthoptera decreased after the mass extinction. The Blattoidea (cockroach) showed a brief trend of extinction after the mass extinction, but soon returned to prosperity; Hemiptera’s population was less affected by mass extinctions, with only minor fluctuations in diversity and subsequent prosperity beyond the Permian; The order Mecoptera is speculated to be an emerging species of the Triassic. Specific trend changes for the above four purposes may be affected by volcanic activity. Insect diversification can reflect changes in terrestrial ecology, providing a reliable example of changes in our current climate environment: scientists can predict the possible ecological impact of global warming through previous records, and take preventive measures to prevent the mass extinction of species again.

A new fossil representative of the scorpionfly subfamily Panorpinae (Mecoptera, Panorpidae) from the Miocene of France

The extant representatives of the order Mecoptera (except Siphonaptera now considered to belong to the Mecoptera: Tihelka et al., 2020) are famous among insects because of their long beaklike rostrum but also, because the males of the family Panorpidae have enlarged genitals raised over the body, and are called scorpionflies. The order Mecoptera is thought to have arisen during the Carboniferous period (Misof et al., 2014), a dating corroborated by their abundant fossil record during the Permian period (https://paleobiodb.org), and the presence of the antliophoran sister group Amphiesmenoptera during the late Carboniferous (Nel et al., 2007). The origin of the main family of Mecoptera i.e., the Panorpidae, was estimated to date to the Early Cretaceous (ca. 122.5 Ma) (Miao et al., 2019). The phylogenetic relationships within the family Panorpidae were recently investigated and revised using morphological data (Wang & Hua, 2021) and new hypotheses were proposed for their past dispersal events. Wang & Hua (2021: fig. 17) assumed that the Panorpidae originated from Asia and that at least two dispersal events have shaped the west European fauna. Here we describe a new specimen of scorpionfly from the Miocene of Murat (Cantal, France).

Some Entomofauna herbivores species related with fig trees in Bambili (North-West Region-Cameroon)

This work was undertaken from March to June 2019 in the Bambili locality to assess the diverse insect species visiting ficus plants. Direct observations on the tree were done trice per week for daily periods: 7-10am, 11am-2pm, 3-5pm. Ficus arboretum, Ficus carica, Ficus infectoria, Ficus maxima, Ficus sur and Ficus virens were identified. Seven arthropod species belonging to five Orders were recorded. Out of these, two species (ants, wasps) belonged to Hymenoptera (74.89%), two others species (Moth, butterfly) belong to Lepidoptera (4.53%); 21.27%, Mecoptera (3.05%) and Coleoptera (0.62%) are represented each by aphids, beetles and scorpion flies respectively.

The new Checklist of the Italian Fauna: Mecoptera

We present a data set reporting the checklist of the species of the order Mecoptera for Italy, updating the one previously published in the series ‘Checklist delle Specie della Fauna d'Italia’ in 1995. The updated checklist comprises 11 taxa at the species and subspecies level, currently known from national Italian territories (7 Panorpidae, 2 Bittacidae, 2 Boreidae). The records are at the regional level and refer to various terrestrial habitats. The previous checklist reported 10 taxa (6 Panorpidae, 2 Bittacidae, 2 Boreidae): no taxa were removed because currently considered not valid and one was added, after scanning 16 papers published between 1993 and 2020 and expanding the regional records. The data set is freely available from LifeWatch Italy at https://www.lifewatchitaly.eu/en/initiatives/checklist-fauna-italia-en/checklist. The data set will be dynamically updated with new records; this paper describes the state of the art of the data set on December 2021.

The evolution of insect visual opsin genes with specific consideration of the influence of ocelli and life history traits

BackgroundVisual opsins are expressed in the compound eyes and ocelli of insects and enable light detection. Three distinct phylogenetic groups of visual opsins are found in insects, named long (LW), short (SW) and ultraviolet (UV) wavelength sensitive opsins. Recently, the LW group was found to be duplicated into the LW2b and the LW2a opsins. The expression of LW2b opsins is ocelli specific in some insects (e.g., bees, cricket, scorpion flies), but the gene was not found in other orders possessing three or less ocelli (e.g., dragonflies, beetles, moths, bugs). In flies, two LW2b homologs have been characterised, with one expressed in the ocelli and the other in the compound eyes. To date, it remains unclear which evolutionary forces have driven gains and losses of LW opsins in insects. Here we take advantage of the recent rapid increase in available sequence data (i.e., from insect genomes, targeted PCR amplification, RNAseq) to characterize the phylogenetic relationships of 1000 opsin sequences in 18 orders of Insects. The resulting phylogeny discriminates between four main groups of opsins, and onto this phylogeny we mapped relevant morphological and life history traits.ResultsOur results demonstrate a conserved LW2b opsin only present in insects with three ocelli. Only two groups (Brachycera and Odonata) possess more than one LW2b opsin, likely linked to their life history. In flies, we hypothesize that the duplication of the LW2b opsin occurred after the transition from aquatic to terrestrial larvae. During this transition, higher flies (Brachycera) lost a copy of the LW2a opsin, still expressed and duplicated in the compound eyes of lower flies (Nematocera). In higher flies, the LW2b opsin has been duplicated and expressed in the compound eyes while the ocelli and the LW2b opsin were lost in lower flies. In dragonflies, specialisation of flight capabilities likely drove the diversification of the LW2b visual opsins.ConclusionThe presence of the LW2b opsin in insects possessing three ocelli suggests a role in specific flight capabilities (e.g., stationary flight). This study provides the most complete view of the evolution of visual opsin genes in insects yet, and provides new insight into the influence of ocelli and life history traits on opsin evolution in insects.

The Adipokinetic Peptides in Diptera: Structure, Function, and Evolutionary Trends.

Nineteen species of various families of the order Diptera and one species from the order Mecoptera are investigated with mass spectrometry for the presence and primary structure of putative adipokinetic hormones (AKHs). Additionally, the peptide structure of putative AKHs in other Diptera are deduced from data mining of publicly available genomic or transcriptomic data. The study aims to demonstrate the structural biodiversity of AKHs in this insect order and also possible evolutionary trends. Sequence analysis of AKHs is achieved by liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. The corpora cardiaca of almost all dipteran species contain AKH octapeptides, a decapeptide is an exception found only in one species. In general, the dipteran AKHs are order-specific- they are not found in any other insect order with two exceptions only. Four novel AKHs are revealed by mass spectrometry: two in the basal infraorder of Tipulomorpha and two in the brachyceran family Syrphidae. Data mining revealed another four novel AKHs: one in various species of the infraorder Culicumorpha, one in the brachyceran superfamily Asiloidea, one in the family Diopsidae and in a Drosophilidae species, and the last of the novel AKHs is found in yet another Drosophila. In general, there is quite a biodiversity in the lower Diptera, whereas the majority of the cyclorraphan Brachycera produce the octapeptide Phote-HrTH. A hypothetical molecular peptide evolution of dipteran AKHs is suggested to start with an ancestral AKH, such as Glomo-AKH, from which all other AKHs in Diptera to date can evolve via point mutation of one of the base triplets, with one exception.

Complete Genome Sequence of Spiroplasma alleghenense PLHS-1T (ATCC 51752), a Bacterium Isolated from Scorpion Fly (Panorpa helena).

Spiroplasma alleghenense PLHS-1T (ATCC 51752) was isolated from the gut of a scorpion fly (Panorpa helena) collected in West Virginia. The complete genome sequence of this bacterium, which consists of a single 1,336,077-bp circular chromosome, is reported in this work.

Snow Scorpionflies (Mecoptera: Boreidae) of the Hanford Reach National Monument

Boreidae are a small and intriguing family of insects in the order Mecoptera. Also called snow scorpionfiies, adults are active in the winter months and thus rarely collected. They are associated with mosses and other bryophytes on which they feed, plants that are prominent components of the biological soil crusts common in shrub-steppe environments. Large series of Boreus californicus, B.nix, and B. reductus were collected in pitfall traps and by hand during surveys conducted from 1998-2002, at what is now the Hanford Reach National Monument. Eleven collecting sites were pitfall trapped in winter during the study, with specimens collected at only three of the locations. All but one of the pitfall-trapped specimens came from two adjacent collecting sites. Specimens were also hand-collected from Rattlesnake Ridge, within 5km of the productive pitfall trap sites. Adults were collected from November through April but were most abundant in December and January. Sex ratios for all species and both collecting methods were generally male dominated. The continuous sampling during this project provides a rare look at the phenology and community composition of shrub-steppe Boreus but does little to elucidate Boreus spp. habitat selection.

Jumping and take-off in a winged scorpion fly (Mecoptera, Panorpa communis).

High-speed videos were used to analyse whether and how adults of a winged species of scorpion fly (Mecoptera, Panorpa communis) jump and determine whether they use the same mechanism as that of the only other mecopteran known to jump, the wingless snow flea, Boreus hyemalis Adult females are longer and heavier than males and have longer legs, but of the same relative proportions. The middle legs are 20% longer and the hind legs 60% longer than the front legs. A jump starts with the middle and hind legs in variable positions, but together, by depressing their coxo-trochanteral and extending their femoro-tibial joints, they accelerate the body in 16-19 ms to mean take-off velocities of 0.7-0.8 m s-1; performances in males and females were not significantly different. Depression of the wings accompanies these leg movements, but clipping them does not affect jump performance. Smooth transition to flapping flight occurs once airborne with little loss of energy to body rotation. Ninety percent of the jumps analysed occurred without an observable stimulus; the remaining 10% were in response to a mechanical touch. The performance of these jumps was not significantly different. In its fastest jumps, a scorpion fly experiences an acceleration of 10g , expends 23 µJ of energy and requires a power output less than 250 W kg-1 of muscle that can be met by direct muscle contractions without invoking an indirect power amplification mechanism. The jumping mechanism is like that of snow fleas.

NEW AND INTERESTING RECORDS OF SCORPION FLIES OF THE GENUS PANORPA (MECOPTERA: PANORPIDAE) FROM BULGARIA WITH A COUNTRY CHECKLIST

This paper gives a new records of scorpion flies of the genus Panorpa (Mecoptera: Panorpidae) from Bulgaria with a country checklist.

First Record Of The Order Mecoptera (Insecta) For The Gorgona Island (Colombia), With The Description Of A New Species.

During a review of material from the project "Assessment of the current status of the faunistic conservation objects from the Gorgona Island: a holistic approach to the ecological evaluation of the Gorgona Natural National Park", conducted 2010‒2011, a male specimen of Pazius Navás, 1913 (Mecoptera: Bittacidae) was found. The genus had been previously recorded in Colombia in the Amazonas and Cundinamarca departments. The specimen described here differs from other species of Pazius by the absence of the aedeagus ventral process, the presence of seven short dorsal spines at the epandrium and shape of the ventral process. This finding represents the first record of the order Mecoptera for Gorgona Island, a new species of Pazius, and the expansion of the genus distribution in Colombia. A detailed morphological description of Pazius gorgonensis n. sp. and an identification key for species of the genus are presented.

A new family of scorpionflies (Insecta; Mecoptera) from the Lower Cretaceous of England

Seven specimens of fossil scorpionflies (Mecoptera) not assignable to any known family were discovered in the Wealden Supergroup (Lower Cretaceous) of southern England. They were found at Rudgwick Brickworks, West Sussex and Smokejacks Brickworks, Surrey and came from the Upper Weald Clay Formation, dated as Barremian (∼129.4–125 Ma). A new family – Englathaumatidae fam. nov., new genus – Englathauma gen. nov. and two new species E. crabbi sp. nov. and E. mellishae sp. nov. are described. A discussion of systematic position of these new taxa within the order Mecoptera is given. Englathaumatidae fam. nov. has been a nomen nudum since the year 2002, due to the first author's untimely death.

Jumping mechanisms and performance of snow fleas (Mecoptera, Boreidae)

Flightless snow fleas (snow scorpion flies, Mecoptera, Boreidae) live as adults during northern hemisphere winters, often jumping and walking on the surface of snow. Their jumping mechanisms and performance were analysed with high speed imaging. Jumps were propelled by simultaneous movements of both the middle and hind pairs of legs, as judged by the 0.2 ms resolution afforded by image rates of 5000 frames s(-1). The middle legs of males represent 140% and the hindlegs 187% of the body length (3.4 mm), and the ratio of leg lengths is 1:1.3:1.7 (front:middle:hind). In preparation for a jump the middle legs and hindlegs were rotated forwards at their coxal joints with the fused mesothorax and metathorax. The first propulsive movement of a jump was the rotation of the trochantera about the coxae, powered by large depressor muscles within the thorax. The acceleration time was 6.6 ms. The fastest jump by a male had a take-off velocity of 1 m s(-1), which required 1.1 μJ of energy and a power output of 0.18 mW, and exerted a force about 16 times its body weight. Jump distances of about 100 mm were unaffected by temperature. This, and the power per mass of muscle requirement of 740 W kg(-1), suggests that a catapult mechanism is used. The elastic protein resilin was revealed in four pads at the articulation of the wing hinge with the dorsal head of the pleural ridge of each middle leg and hindleg. By contrast, fleas, which use just their hindlegs for jumping, have only two pads of resilin. This, therefore, provides a functional reference point for considerations about the phylogenetic relationships between snow fleas and true fleas.

Mitochondrial genome sequences of representatives of three families of scorpionflies (Order Mecoptera) and evolution in a major duplication of coding sequence

The complete mitochondrial DNA sequences of a hangingfly, Bittacus pilicornis (Mecoptera: Bittacidae), a snow scorpion fly, Boreus elegans (Mecoptera: Boreidae), and a nearly complete sequence from another scorpionfly species, Microchorista philpotti (Mecoptera: Nannochoristidae) were determined. The coding sequence of all three genomes includes the 37 genes normally found in insect mtDNAs, in the same gene order as first described in Drosophila. In addition to the standard set of genes, the Microchorista sequence includes a large duplication of the coding region. The duplication is at least 4kb (and may be much larger) and includes the remnants of three protein-coding genes and seven tRNA genes. The duplication evidently arose as a single event, and the duplicated region can be aligned in its entirety with the corresponding region of the functional genome. Although most of the genes contain defects that render them nonfunctional, analysis shows that the protein-coding genes in the duplicated region evolved for a considerable period under constraints expected of functional protein-coding genes. It is evident, therefore, that for a period two copies of some of the mitochondrial genes were functional in this species, including genes coding for proteins.

A Panorpoid (Insecta: Mecoptera) from the Lower Eocene of Patagonia, Argentina

The order Mecoptera is represented on all continents, albeit with an uneven distribution. Mecoptera includes about 34 families (Labandeira, 1994, p. 34), only four of them, until now, represented in South America: Permochoristidae Tillyard, 1917 (†) (Pinto, 1972); Bittacidae Handlirsch, 1906 [and stem-group “Neorthophlebinae” (†)] (Petrulevičius, 2001a, 2003, 2007); Nannochoristidae Tillyard, 1917; and Eomeropidae Cockerell, 1909. The two latter families have a present relict distribution in southern South America but without fossil record, obviously an artifact due to few studies of fossil insects in the subcontinent. The diversity of recent Bittacidae is high in South America with respect to other continents. Thirty-five percent of recent genera of Bittacidae come from South America, and 80% of these genera are endemic (extracted from Penny, 1997). Bittacidae is well represented in the fossil record, with species from the Jurassic of Patagonia (Petrulevičius, 2007), Lower Cretaceous of Brazil (Petrulevičius and Martins-Neto, 2001), to the late Paleocene of Argentina (Petrulevičius, 1998, 1999, 2001b, 2003). This contribution reports a specimen belonging to the Panorpoidea, a group with no recent species in South America and very few species in the entire Southern Hemisphere.

Neotropical Mecoptera (Insecta): New generic synonymies, new combinations, key to families and genera, and checklist of species

Two Neotropical genera of Mecoptera (Thyridates Navás, 1908, Neobittacus Esben–Petersen, 1914 n. syn.) are synonymized under Bittacus Latreille, 1805. The following are new combinations: Bittacus aripuanaensis (Penny, 1977) n. comb., B. brunnipenis (Collucci & Amorim, 2000) n. comb., B. froehlichi (Collucci & Amorim, 2000) n. comb., B. latreillei (Collucci & Amorim, 2000) n. comb., B. novokschonovi (Petrulevičius, 2003) n. comb. and B. willmanni (Collucci & Amorim, 2001) n. comb.. A pictorial key to Neotropical families and genera and a checklist of Neotropical species are presented.