name ?


filename="Dscn0196.jpg"


Comments
========
From: Sericinus hunter
Subject: Re: something with wings
Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2000 21:35:52 GMT

"3dham ... not confused any more!" wrote:
>
> A close examination shows that it has 4 wings so it isn't a dipteran (fly).
> The overall appearance of the wings suggests a hymenopteran
> (ants,bees,wasps), but the elongated "snout" doesn't fit. The globular
> structure at the end of the abdomen has me baffled as well. It looks like it
> might be a blood sucker of some sort.

This is a typical representative of order Mecoptera, which is to my
understanding pretty close to Hymenoptera, but still is a distinctive order.
I do not know its English name but (translating from my language) it is
very likely to sound something like 'scorpion fly'.

They are not blood suckers, although one can be fooled by their beak-shaped
head, it is only a head. The mandibula (lower jaws which is what most insects
mouth is formed of) are not of a sucking type but rather of 'gnawing' type.
They eat virtually everything, including smaller insects. This formation at
the end of the abdomen is a male genital capsula and resembles a tail of
a scorpion, hence the common name.

Andrei