This week we look at one of the strangest flying insects out there and their behaviors. There are many kinds of scorpionflies and they are all pretty different.    Support the show -> patreon.com/user?u=46499107 IG: https://www.instagram.com/insects4fun/ FB: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100085443614825 Email: [email protected]   Music from Lofi Girl:  Richard Smithson, Cubase, Mondo Loops, Sátyr Transcript:    Welcome back to episode 50 of Insects for Fun! The weekly podcast covering all things entomology. This week we are looking into a very interesting type of fly which is actually not a fly at all, and kinda seems more like a chimera than anything else!   Intro:  Scorpion flies are a group of insects belonging to the order Mecoptera which means long wings, but the wings are not the most interesting thing about these insects. There is one family in particular called panorpidae, and the males in this family have an abdomen which curves upward and has a large bulb-like structure with a pointed tip at the end. This family has the most species and is the main reason why Mecoptera are often referred to as scorpionflies. That being said, those showy and intimidating tails are only for mating, and can’t harm you or anything else. Another really wacky feature for these insects would be their long mouths.The heads are actually small but the mouth itself is really big. The term for a mouth like this is called a rostrum which I mentioned in the Acorn weevil episode!   As for the wings, they are heavily veined and have a more primitive appearance as if they came from a Mayfly. I really can’t stress enough how strange these insects look, it’s like someone just took random parts from different insects and put them together into this monster we call a scorpion fly.    The distribution for these is worldwide but the diversity is strangely separated. For example there is more variety at a species level within Africa, and the European continent, but there is greater variety in families and genera in the Americas and Australasia.    And not all of these scorpionflies look this weird. There are 9 families within the order, and each one looks pretty different. For example one family called Bittacidae look like four winged crane flies and are often referred to as hangflies or hanging scorpions. Another family called Boreidae look more like fleas or even the flightless midge found in antarctica.    Life Cycle, and food source etc:  In general scorpion flies prefer more humid environments in forests and grasslands surrounded by broadleaf vegetation like oak trees or other shrubbery with flat leaves to rest on. These insects feed on everything from honeydew and nectar to dead or dying organisms. Many of them actually snatch prey out of spider webs which is really cool!    Some though are carnivorous scavengers that prey upon smaller insects and sometimes even spiders. The hanging flies mentioned earlier are in this camp and have a really cool method for catching prey. These flies literally hang on the edges of plants with their legs dangling down and they grab insects mid flight to feed on.    The life cycle for these insects is holometabolous which means that they have a larval and pupal stage. The larvae for scorpionflies actually resemble caterpillars and spend their time in the ground feeding on decaying matter and other small insects except for one special family found  in New Zealand, Australia, Tasmania, Chile and Argentina. This special family called Nannochoristidae have aquatic larvae that prey on smaller animals in riverbeds. They are also believed to be one of the only larvae that have true compound eyes, which is wild because compound eyes are known to be a special trait in adult insects (insert naruto quote)    I can’t speak for every scorpionfly out there, but in general these have one generation a year with the pupae staying dormant during the winter months.    Females lay the