1940] 
Mating Habits of Borens brumalis 
125 
THE MATING HABITS OF THE WINTER MECOP- 
TERON, BOREUS BRUMALIS FITCH. 
By G. C. Crampton, Ph.D, 
Massachusetts State College, Amherst, Mass. 
The family Boreidse contains the small winter scorpion- 
flies which differ from the bulk of their allies in that they 
are active during the winter, running about on the snow 
when most adult insects are dormant from the cold. 
The life histories of the American species of Borens have 
not been worked out in detail, but since their larvse may be 
found in the moss about the roots of trees in cemeteries, or 
along the sides of wooded roads, at almost any time of the 
year, it is extremely probable that there is more than one 
generation a year. Pupae found in the same situations, in 
the neighborhood of Amherst, emerged in late October ; and 
it is probable that adults are to be found at that time, 
although they were not taken in the open until later in the 
year. The pupae are not immobile, but wriggle about actively 
when they are removed from their pupal cavities in the earth 
about the moss roots. 
Adult specimens of Borens found on the snow in December 
and February 1 when brought indoors and placed in jars 
containing moss, in the hopes that they might oviposit in the 
moss, were too greatly excited by their unusual surroundings 
to oviposit, and spent most of the time climbing to the tips of 
the moss stems and jumping off like fleas toward the light of 
the windows in which the jars were placed. This leaping 
toward the source of light was not observed in any other 
Mecoptera ; and the leaping habit exhibited by Borens lends 
some weight to Tillyard’s suggestion that Borens is related 
to the ancestors of the fleas. 
1 The writer is deeply indebted to Dr. Inez Williams, formerly a 
student of the Massachusetts State College, for her assistance in collect- 
ing much of the material upon which these observations were made, 
during the winter of 1933. 
