Hangingfly

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Hangingfly
Temporal range: Early Triassic–Recent
Hylobittacus apicalis Michigan.jpg
Hylobittacus apicalis , Michigan, USA
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Mecoptera
Infraorder: Raptipeda
Family: Bittacidae
Handlirsch, 1906
Genera

See text

Diversity
16 genera, ca. 170 species

Bittacidae is a family of scorpionflies commonly called hangingflies or hanging scorpionflies.

The genus Bittacus, comprising approximately 75% of all species within the family, occurs worldwide. Other genera are mostly confined to South America or Australia. Members of this family may be confused with crane flies, in the order Diptera, but can be distinguished by their two pairs of wings and lack of halteres.

They are distinguished in the fact that during mating the male captures a prey insect and offers it to the female as a nuptial gift. The larger the prey item is, the more receptive the female will be to mating. [1]

Genera

This list is based on The World Checklist of extant Mecoptera Species. [2] Presumably complete up to 1997, it is updated as needed. The number of species in each genus are in parentheses. A number of extinct(†) genera have been described from the fossil record.

Extinct genera

Related Research Articles

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The Trachypachidae are a family of beetles that generally resemble small ground beetles, but that are distinguished by the large coxae of their rearmost legs. There are only six known extant species in the family, with four species of Trachypachus found in northern Eurasia and northern North America, and two species of Systolosoma in Chile and Argentina. They were much more diverse in the past, with dozens of described species from the Mesozoic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tanyderidae</span> Family of flies

Tanyderidae, sometimes called primitive crane flies, are long, thin, delicate flies with spotted wings, superficially similar in appearance to some Tipulidae, Trichoceridae, and Ptychopteridae. Most species are restricted in distribution. They are found in many parts of the world, including North America, South America, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and various islands in the Pacific Ocean. Adults are usually found hanging from vegetation near streams. Larvae are found either in sandy stream margins or in wet, rotten wood. Fossil species are known.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ptychopteridae</span> Family of flies

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anaxyelidae</span> Family of sawflies

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Osmylidae</span> Family of insects

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coptoclavidae</span> Extinct family of beetles

Coptoclavidae is an extinct family of aquatic beetles in the suborder Adephaga. The Coptoclavidae lived from the Late Triassic to the Early Cretaceous. Coptoclavidae is a member of the adephagan clade Dytiscoidea., which contains other aquatic beetles. Suggested reasons for their extinction to include the rise of teleost fish, or competition with Gyrinidae and Dytiscidae, which possess defensive secretions and sucking channels in the mandibles of larvae, which coptoclavids likely lacked. It has been suggested that the genus Timarchopsis and the subfamily Timarchopsinae are only distantly related to other coptoclavids based on cladistic analysis, with Timarchopsis being more closely related to geadephagans like carabids and trachypachids instead. Another study also suggested similarly for Coptoclavisca and possibly other coptoclaviscines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ithonidae</span> Family of insects

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Mongolbittacus is an extinct genus of hangingfly in the family Bittacidae and containing a single species Mongolbittacus daohugoensis. The species is known only from the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation, part of the Daohugou Beds, near the village of Daohugou in Ningcheng County, northeastern China.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pseudopolycentropodidae</span> Extinct family of insects

Pseudopolycentropodidae is an extinct family of scorpionflies known from the Mesozoic. Fossils are known from the Middle Triassic (Anisian) to the early Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian). It is part of Mesopsychoidea, a group of scorpionflies with siphonate proboscis. They are suggested to have been nectarivores, feeding off the liquid pollination drops and acting as pollinators for now extinct insect pollinated gymnosperms such as Bennettitales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mesopsychidae</span> Extinct family of insects

Mesopsychidae is an extinct family of scorpionflies known from the Late Permian to Mid Cretaceous. It is part of Mesopsychoidea, a group of scorpionflies with siphonate proboscis. They are suggested to have been nectarivores, feeding off the liquid pollination drops and acting as pollinators for now extinct insect pollinated gymnosperms such as Bennettitales.

Blattulidae is an extinct family of cockroaches known from the Triassic to the Late Cretaceous. Their distinguishing characteristics include "forewing has long Sc, regular venation with distinct intercalaries and hindwing has simple CuP, branched A1."

Mesoblattinidae is an extinct family of cockroaches known from the Mesozoic. It was formerly considered a wastebasket taxon for Mesozoic cockroaches, but the family has subsequently been better defined, with many taxa transferred to Caloblattinidae. It is considered to have close affinities with Blattidae and Ectobiidae, as well as possibly Blaberidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Procercopidae</span> Extinct family of true bugs

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archisargidae</span> Extinct family of flies

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Mesochrysopidae is an extinct family of lacewings known from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. They are considered to be closely related to green lacewings of the family Chrysopidae. The family are also alternatively considered a paraphyletic grade leading up to crown Chrysopidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Necrotauliidae</span> Extinct family of caddisflies

Necrotauliidae is an extinct family Mesozoic Amphiesmenoptera. While previously considered a paraphyletic grouping of "basal Trichoptera, basal Lepidoptera, and advanced stem-Amphiesmenoptera", they have recently been considered early diverging caddisflies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orthophlebiidae</span>

Orthophlebiidae is an extinct family of scorpionflies known from the Triassic to Cretaceous, belonging to the superfamily Panorpoidea. The family is poorly defined and is probably paraphyletic, representing many primitive members of Panorpoidea with most species only known from isolated wings, and has such been considered a wastebasket taxon.

References

  1. Gao, Qionghua; Hua, Baozhen (3 December 2013). "Co-Evolution of the Mating Position and Male Genitalia in Insects: A Case Study of a Hangingfly". PLOS ONE. 8 (12): e80651. Bibcode:2013PLoSO...880651G. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0080651 . PMC   3849121 . PMID   24312490.
  2. "World Checklist of extant Mecoptera Species – Bittacidae (Hanging-flies)". California Academy of Sciences, Department of Entomology. 31 October 1997. Archived from the original on 2005-04-08.
  3. Kevin J. Lambkin (2017). "Archebittacus exilis Riek—the oldest hangingfly (Insecta: Mecoptera: Bittacidae)". Zootaxa. 4290 (2): 385–389. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4290.2.10.
  4. 1 2 Li, Y-L.; Ren, D.; Shih, C-K (2008). "Two Middle Jurassic hanging-flies (Insecta: Mecoptera: Bittacidae) from Northeast China" (PDF). Zootaxa. 1929: 38–46. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.1929.1.2. ISSN   1175-5334.
  5. Petrulevicius, J. F.; Huang, D-Y.; Ren, D. (2007). "A new hangingfly (Insecta: Mecoptera: Bittacidae) from the Middle Jurassic of Inner Mongolia, China" (PDF). African Invertebrates. 48 (1): 145–152. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-21. Retrieved 2011-08-29.