(A) 



THE SCORPION-FLIES. 



By E. P. Felt, D. Sc. 



(Read in abstract before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Septem- 

 ber 3, 1895, at SpriDgfield, Mass.) 



The scorpion-flies are to be found more commonly in damp, waste 

 places, where little of value grows and, consequently, their powers for 

 either good or evil are limited by the surroundings. In the larval 

 state they are most probably predaceous and may aid in keeping some 

 of the smaller injurious insects in check. In the imago state the evi- 

 dence of the predaceous habits of JPanorpa, the typical scorpion-fly, 

 is not so clear as one might desire, yet there is nothing to prove it 

 injurious. 



The scorpion-flies, together with the closely-related genus Bittacus 

 and a few other allied forms, were long included in the old order Neu- 

 roptera. Within recent years some authors have assigned these insects 

 to a separate order, the Mecoptera, which is placed between the now 

 more limited order Neuroptera and the Lepidoptera. The Mecoptera 



Fig. 23.— Venation" of Panorpa rufksckns. The homology of the veins was determined 



by Prof. J. H. Comstock 



are distinguished by possessing four numerously veined membraneous 

 wings (Fig. 23); the head is prolonged into a beak; metamorphosis 



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