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SE Biology, Vol. 61, No. 1, January, 2014 
NEWS OF BIOLOGY IN THE SOUTHEAST 
Riccardo Fiorillo— News Editor 
School of Science and Technology 
Georgia Gwinnett College 
Lawrenceville, Georgia 
rfiorillo@ggc.edu 
ABOUT PEOPLE AND PLACES 
The Mecoptera Collection of the Florida State Collection of Arthropods: 
Scorpionflies, Hangingflies, Earwigflies, and Allies 
Louis A. Somma and James C. Dunford 
McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity 
Florida Museum of Natural History 
University of Florida 
Gainesville, FL 32611-2710 
David Serrano 
Broward College 
3501 SW Davie Rd 
Davie, FL 33314 
Mecoptera is a small, “primitive,” and poorly-researched order of insects with 
fewer than 700 known, extant species arranged into 9 families worldwide. 
Current DNA and anatomical studies suggest they are closely related to fleas 
(Siphonaptera). Adults and larvae are principally scavengers and/or predators. 
The Mecoptera Collection at the Florida State Collection of Arthropods (FSCA) in 
the Doyle Conner Center (Division of Plant Industry, Florida Department of 
Agriculture and Consumer Services) is adjacent to the University of Florida’s 
McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity and is the largest in the 
southeastern US. The Collection presently contains 20 drawers of mostly pinned 
adults, representing more than 4800 specimens. Moreover, FSCA houses and 
curates McGuire Center mecopteran specimens. Families represented in the 
Collection include Nannochoristidae, Boreidae (snow scorpionflies or “snow 
fleas”), Eomeropidae, Meropeidae (earwigflies), Panorpodidae (short-faced 
scorpionflies), Bittacidae (hangingflies), and Panorpidae (scorpionflies). There 
are three holotypes ( Panorpa appalachia Byers 2002; P. dividilacinia Bicha 2006; 
P. floridana Byers 1993) and four allotypes (P. dividilacinia Bicha 2006; P. 
nudiramus Byers 2002; P. tecta Byers 2002; Neopanorpa similis Byers 1999) 
housed in the Collection. Recently, a new species of Nepalese hangingfly, 
Bittacus coheri Bicha, 2011 was described from a donation to the Collection, and 
we have discovered the first state records for the elusive North American 
Earwigfly, Merope tuber, in the Florida panhandle. Additionally, in 2010 we 
rediscovered the seemingly rare Florida Scorpionfly, Panorpa floridana, in Gold 
Head Branch Ravine, Florida, based on the beautiful photos of wildlife 
photographer Stephen Cresswell, taken of the sixth known individual of this 
