1931 ] 
The Biology of the Mecoptera 
43 
seem especially realistic when they are compared with the 
serious reproductions of dragons and hydras which are 
included in the serpent section of Johnston’s volume. Lin- 
nseus, whose tenth edition of the Systema appeared a little 
more than a century after Johnston’s publication, described 
only three species of scorpion-flies, placing them in the 
genus Panorpa of the Neuroptera. About a quarter 
of a century later (1801) Latreille decided that they 
required a separate family, which he called Panorpatse. 
Pig. 1. Early illustrations of scorpion-flies: 
A (5, 9), from Aldrovandi’s Be Animalibus, 1605; 
B, from Moufet’s Insectorum sive Minimorum 
Animalium Theatrwn, 1643 
In 1886 Packard erected the order Mecaptera for them, 
in reference to the long wings; and in 1895 Comstock 
changed the name to Mecoptera, the form in which it 
has subsequently been used. At the present time five 
families of the order are usually recognized: Notiothau- 
midse, including a single species, which is restricted to 
Chile; Meropidse, also including a single species, found 
along our Atlantic coast from Maine to Georgia; Panor- 
pidse, consisting of about 250 species and being generally 
