| Panorpa vulgaris | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Mecoptera |
| Family: | Panorpidae |
| Genus: | Panorpa |
| Species: | P. vulgaris |
| Binomial name | |
| Panorpa vulgaris Imhoff & Labram, 1845 | |
Panorpa vulgaris, also known by its common name meadow scorpionfly is a species from the genus Panorpa . [1] [2] [3] The species was first described in 1845. [4]
P. vulgaris are commonly distributed throughout central Europe. [5] They prefer dry and warm habitats that provide shade at high temperatures [6] and are most abundant along the edges of low-lying shrubs. [7] Despite their environmental preference, smaller populations do occur in forested areas that experience moist and cool conditions. [6]
Meadow scorpionfly larvae have stemmata. [8] In adult individuals the cytoplasm of their neuron cells located within the eye become reduced with aging, resulting in decreased vision [9]
Adult individuals are often considered weak flyers [10] due to deterioration of tissues with increasing age. [9] Flight musculature degenerates over time due to the combination of deformed mitochondria and hypertrophy of connective tissues. [9]
In early developmental stages larvae decrease their amount of hemocytes when transitioning into pupae. [11] This is hypothesized by the distribution of resources to reproductive structures. [11] Females are considered to have better immunity. [1] Females have higher amounts of hemocytes and increased lysosomal activity in their hemolymph compared to males. [1]
Individuals of both sexes are capable of foraging for food, they are heavily influenced by their environments. [12] Intraspecific and interspecific competition is common between and within both sexes when food sources are limited. [10] Both larvae and adults typically feed on dead arthropods, and adults are often kleptoparasites of spider webs. [10] Adults are generally capable of avoiding spiderwebs when feeding on prey. [10] Males will use their genital claspers and females will use their abdomens to remove prey from spider webs and will even strike spiders who attempt to interfere with them. [10]
The meadow scorpionfly develops two separate generations per year, [6] one generation that undergoes overwintering in early spring and another that experiences a diapause free-developing stage in the summer. [6] [13] During their lifecycle individuals can survive up to two months. [14] ] [15]
Females meadow scorpionflies are known to be polyandrous, allowing them to make multiple mating attempts with numerous males. [16] Some females have shown evidence of being capable of mating with up to nine different males. [12] [16] During mating, males will attach themselves to one of the females forewings with their genital claspers to remain connected until copulation is complete. [17] Male meadow scorpionflies provide nuptial gifts for their female counterparts. [12] [10] The gifts males provide are a series of salivary secretions and different types of carrion that the females will ingest as a nutrient source. [10] [16] In the males first generation salivary secretions are the main source of nuptial gifting. [10] During the second generation male salivary protein structures become depleted, [9] resulting in the use of carrion. [10] These nuptial gifts are both a mating effort and a form of paternal investment. [16] The duration of copulation between males and females is determined by the amount of saliva a male is able to produce. [12] While mating males will continuously transfer sperm to females until nuptial gifts are completely consumed. [16] The sperm transferred by males will eventually compete with other ejaculates from other males by the means of the raffle principle. [16] Since saliva production is a significant energy investment, it can be a quality indicator of male health. [15] [12] Females will further discriminate between different males based on the amount of saliva provided. [12] The amount of saliva a female receives during mating directly influences the amount of offspring she is able to produce. [16] Males will also be selective of females based on the amount of offspring a female will be able to produce. [15] [12] [16] Inherently, males are capable of influencing the quality or the amount of ejaculate that they provide to females based on their bias. [12]
Behavioral ecology, also spelled behavioural ecology, is the study of the evolutionary basis for animal behavior due to ecological pressures. Behavioral ecology emerged from ethology after Niko Tinbergen outlined four questions to address when studying animal behaviors: What are the proximate causes, ontogeny, survival value, and phylogeny of a behavior?
A spermatophore or sperm ampulla is a capsule or mass containing spermatozoa created by males of various animal species, especially salamanders and arthropods, and transferred in entirety to the female's ovipore during reproduction. Spermatophores may additionally contain nourishment for the female, in which case it is called a nuptial gift, as in the instance of bush crickets. In the case of the toxic moth Utetheisa ornatrix, the spermatophore includes sperm, nutrients, and pyrrolizidine alkaloids which prevent predation because it is poisonous to most organisms. However, in some species such as the Edith's checkerspot butterfly, the "gift" provides little nutrient value. The weight of the spermatophore transferred at mating has little effect on female reproductive output.
Mecoptera is an order of insects in the superorder Holometabola with about six hundred species in nine families worldwide. Mecopterans are sometimes called scorpionflies after their largest family, Panorpidae, in which the males have enlarged genitals raised over the body that look similar to the stingers of scorpions, and long beaklike rostra. The Bittacidae, or hangingflies, are another prominent family and are known for their elaborate mating rituals, in which females choose mates based on the quality of gift prey offered to them by the males. A smaller group is the snow scorpionflies, family Boreidae, adults of which are sometimes seen walking on snowfields. In contrast, the majority of species in the order inhabit moist environments in tropical locations.
Bittacidae is a family of scorpionflies commonly called hangingflies or hanging scorpionflies.
Boreidae, commonly called snow scorpionflies, or in the British Isles, snow fleas are a very small family of scorpionflies, containing only around 30 species, all of which are boreal or high-altitude species in the Northern Hemisphere.
The Panorpidae are a family of scorpionflies containing more than 480 species. The family is the largest family in Mecoptera, covering approximately 70% species of the order. Species range between 9–25 mm long.
Leptopanorpa is a genus of scorpionflies that mainly distributed in Java, with two species also occurring in Sumatra. The males have elongated abdomens which can they can use to compete with other males and these abdomen are also sexually displayed to females. A recent revision found that the genus was nested within a paraphyletic Neopanorpa.
Panorpa is a genus of scorpion-flies that is widely dispersed, especially in the Northern Hemisphere. However, they do not occur in western North America. Thirteen species occur in eastern Canada.
Utetheisa ornatrix, also called the ornate bella moth, ornate moth, bella moth or rattlebox moth is a moth of the subfamily Arctiinae. It is aposematically colored ranging from pink, red, orange and yellow to white coloration with black markings arranged in varying patterns on its wings. It has a wingspan of 33–46 mm. Moths reside in temperate midwestern and eastern North America as well as throughout Mexico and other parts of Central America. Unlike most moths, the bella moth is diurnal. Formerly, the bella moth or beautiful utetheisa of temperate eastern North America was separated as Utetheisa bella. Now it is united with the bella moth in Utetheisa ornatrix.
Empis borealis is a species of dance flies in the fly family Empididae. It is found in most of Europe, except the Balkan Peninsula, the Baltic Region and the Iberian Peninsula. The brown wings of the female are very broad, while the male fly’s wings are narrower.
The labrum is a flap-like structure that lies immediately in front of the mouth in almost all extant Euarthropoda. The most conspicuous exceptions are the Pycnogonida, which probably are chelicerate-relatives. In entomology, the labrum amounts to the "upper lip" of an insect mouth, the corresponding "lower lip" being the labium.
A nuptial gift is a nutritional gift given by one partner in some animals' sexual reproduction practices.
Hylobittacus apicalis is a species of hangingfly in the order Mecoptera, and the only species within the genus Hylobittacus.
Jurassipanorpa is a genus of fossil scorpionfly containing two species described in 2014 from the Jiulongshan Formation of Inner Mongolia, China. The two species, J. impuctata and J. sticta, lived in the late Middle Jurassic period. Upon description, they were claimed to represent the oldest known representatives of the scorpionfly family Panorpidae, but this was later questioned.
Cryptic female choice is a form of mate choice which occurs both in pre and post copulatory circumstances when females in certain species use physical or chemical mechanisms to control a male's success of fertilizing their ova or ovum; i.e. by selecting whether sperm are successful in fertilizing their eggs or not. It occurs in internally-fertilizing species and involves differential use of sperm by females when sperm are available in the reproductive tract.
Holcorpa is a genus of extinct insects in the scorpionfly order Mecoptera. Two Eocene age species found in Western North America were placed into the genus, H. dillhoffi and H. maculosa.
Drosophila subobscura is a species of fruit fly in the family Drosophilidae. Originally found around the Mediterranean, it has spread to most of Europe and the Near East. It has been introduced into the west coasts of Canada, the United States, and Chile. Its closest relative is Drosophila madeirensis, found in the Madeira Islands, followed by D. guanche, found in the Canary Islands. These three species form the D. subobscura species subgroup. When they mate, males and females perform an elaborate courtship dance, in which the female can either turn away to end the mating ritual, or stick out her proboscis in response to the male's, allowing copulation to proceed. D. subobscura has been regarded as a model organism for its use in evolutionary-biological studies.
Dicerapanorpa is a genus of scorpionflies endemic to China. They can be easily recognized by the two anal horns on the posterior margin of the sixth tergum in males.
Panorpa cognata is a species of scorpionfly belonging to the family Panorpidae.
Harpobittacus is a genus of hangingfly of the family Bittacidae found in Australia.