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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Scorpionflies, Hangingflies, and Allies (Mecoptera) » Snow Scorpionflies (Boreidae) » Boreus

Genus Boreus

Classification · Explanation of Names · Numbers · Size · Identification · Range · Habitat · Season · Food · Remarks · Works Cited

Is this a wasp? Or something else? - Boreus brumalis - male

Boreus californicus? - Boreus californicus - female

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Mecoptera (Scorpionflies, Hangingflies, and Allies)

Family Boreidae (Snow Scorpionflies)

Genus Boreus

Explanation of Names

Boreus Latreille 1816

'Boreus' (northern) refers to the distribution of these insects

Numbers

12 species in NA (10 western, 2 eastern), 27 total(1)

Size

2-6 mm

Identification

Adults dark-colored with an elongated rostrum ("beak"), long antennae, vestigial wings, and long hind legs adapted to jumping; female has a straight ovipositor about the same length as the rostrum, and tapering to a point; males have a blunt rounded abdominal tip

Keys to spp.:

Carpenter 1935: 111-112 (out of date, several synonymies)

Penny 1977: 186-187 (lacking subsequently described spp., e.g. B. bomari, B. insulanus)

Range

throughout the Holarctic Region; in NA, AK-NB south to VA-TN in the east, to CA-AZ in the west; only B. brumalis and B. nivoriundus are eastern(1)

Habitat

on surface of snow at high elevations in southern part of range; on snow in various habitats farther north

Season

Nov-Apr (BG data)

Food

larvae and adults feed on leafy parts of mosses(2)

Remarks

The mating behavior is peculiar among insects: the male grasps the female with his slender, hardened wings and moves her to a position above his back, with the lower part of her ovipositor inserted into his ninth (genital) segment(3). The female, on the male's back, has the base of her ovipositor touching the tip of the male's upturned abdomen.

Works Cited

1.	World checklist of extant Mecoptera species

2.	The Mecoptera, or scorpionflies, of Illinois Webb D.W., Penny N.D., Marlin J.C. 1975. Illinois Natural History Survey Bull. 31: 251–316.

3.	Scorpionflies, hangingflies, and other Mecoptera Byers G.W. 2002. The Kansas School Naturalist 48(1).

Contributed by Robin McLeod on 7 November, 2005 - 12:27am
Additional contributions by Mike Quinn, Ben Coulter, v belov
Last updated 21 December, 2016 - 8:00am

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