Mecoptera Research Articles

Sex Attractant of Male Scorpion Flies

IT is well known that in mecopteran flies of the family Panorpidae courtship and mating behaviour fall into a distinctive pattern1. In the case of the Bittacidae, the recorded observations2–4, although suggestive, have been insufficient to reveal clear-cut feeding and mating patterns.

The Australian Mecoptera or Scorpion-flies.

This paper deals with the systematics of all known Australian Mecoptera. Two new species are described: Austrobittocw anomalus (Austrobittacus is a new genus) and Harpobittacus phaeoscius; and three new subspecies: Harpobittacus australis rubripes, H. tillyardi albatus, and H. t. rubricatus.

Biology and Morphology of Some North American Bittacidae (Order Mecoptera)

Biology and Morphology of Some North American Bittacidae (Order Mecoptera)

Descriptions and Records of Nearctic Mecoptera

Descriptions and Records of Nearctic Mecoptera

The Evolution of the Scorpion-Flies and Their Derivatives (Order Mecoptera)

Recent discoveries in fossil insects have served to bring into considerable prominence the small and previously greatly neglected Order Mecoptera, or Scorpion-flies. At the present time, this Order is one of the smallest of all insect Orders, less than 200 species having been described from all parts of the world. Fossil representatives of the Order have long been known from the Liassic and Upper Jurassic of Europe; but it was not until 1916 that I described the first Triassic form (Tillyard, 1916). This was followed in 1918 (Tillyard, 1918) by the description of the first Upper Permian form, and in 1926 (Tillyard, 1926a) by the account of the Lower Permian Mecoptera from Kansas. Since that time, valuable papers have been published by Martynov (1927, 1928, 1930) describing Mecoptera from the Upper Permian and Jurassic of various parts of Russia, Turkestan and Siberia, and by F. M. Carpenter (1930) on the Lower Permian fauna of Kansas, while I have added further records from the Upper Permian and Upper Trias of Australia (Tillyard, 1917, 1919a, 1919b, 1926b) and have also, quite recently, revised the rich Liassic material in the British Museum in a paper which should be in print shortly before this (Tillyard, 1933). I have also (Tillyard, 1926a, p. 161) indicated the reasons for considering Metropator pusillus Handl. to be a true member of the Order Mecoptera, although this wing is one of the eight oldest known fossil insect wings yet discovered, its age being Lower Upper Carboniferous (Lower Pottsville Series).

New Nearctic Mecoptera, With Notes on Other Species

New Nearctic Mecoptera, With Notes on Other Species

XXI.—Two new species of Scorpion flies (Insecta, order Mecoptera)

XXI.—<i>Two new species of Scorpion flies (Insecta, order Mecoptera)</i>

Note on the Surgonopods of Certain Mecopteraand Neuroptera

Note on the Surgonopods of Certain Mecopteraand Neuroptera

Studies in Australian Mecoptera. No. i. The new family Nannochoristidae, with descriptions of a new genus and four new species: and an appendix descriptive of a new genus and species from New Zealand

Studies in Australian Mecoptera. No. i. The new family Nannochoristidae, with descriptions of a new genus and four new species: and an appendix descriptive of a new genus and species from New Zealand