August, 1908.] THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 69 



NOTES ON THE SCORPION-FLY, BITTACUS 

 AUSTBALIS. 



By Edmund Jarvis. 

 (Communicated by J. A. Kershaw, F.E.S.) 

 {Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria^ IWi July, 1908.) 

 This common scorpion-fly is a familiar object in country districts 

 during the spring and early summer, when it may be seen flying 

 about the blossoms of the leptospermums and other plants, or 

 resting among the flowers. It belongs to the family Panorpid^e 

 of the order Neuroptera. The body is of the usual slender 

 neuropterous shape, with the wings moderately large, and when 

 folded projecting beyond the extremity of the abdomen. 



Although related to the dragon-flies, it is most unlike them in 

 habits and structure, the flight being slow and weakly, more like 

 that of the Tipulides, whilst the abdomen is much shorter, and 

 the head small, with the lower portion produced into a beak, at 

 the end of which are the parts of the mouth. The antennae are 

 long and somewhat setaceous. The most remarkable difference 

 is in the legs, which are very long, and wonderfully adapted for 

 catching and holding the prey of this most voracious insect. The 

 femora and tibiae are covered with minute spines, the latter armed 

 with two long ones at their extremities, whilst the joints of the 

 tarsi are flexible and can be used for grasping objects like a hand, 

 the terminal joint being shaped somewhat like a pointed finger- 

 nail and capable of doubling completely over against the pre- 

 ceding joint. 



It is not unusual to see this extraordinary creature flying 

 slowly through the air encumbered by the weight of some 

 insect it has captured dangling at the end of one of its long hind 

 legs, and held by the foot, which grasps it round the body; it 

 presents a curious and conspicuous object, more especially 

 when, as frequently occurs, the insect it carries happens to be 

 considerably larger than itself. The principal victims appear to 

 be bees and other insects of about the same size, but on more 

 than one occasion I have seen it supporting at some height above 

 the ground, although with apparent difliculty, a specimen of the 

 day-moth, Philcenoides tristifica (Agarista lewini), which it had 

 succeeded in overpowering, and was retaining, for the juices of so 

 large a body would doubtless afford it several meals. 



I had often wondered how a soft-bodied insect like Bittacus 

 australis, three-quarters of an inch only in length, could possibly 

 overpower the common Honey-bee, A2ns mellijlca, an insect of 

 about equal bulk, and possessing the apparent advantages of a 

 hard body and powerful sting, until one day it was my good 

 fortune to see exactly how the capture was effected. It was on 

 one of those glorious, perfectly cloudless mornings in November, 



