#hangingfly

Hangingflies

Bug Bites #008 - Black-Winged Hangingfly (Hylobittacus apicalis)

Family: Hangingfly Family (Bittacidae)

IUCN Conservation Status: Unassessed

Carnivorous relatives of the similarly unusual scorpionflies and snow fleas, hangingflies are named for the unique and bizarre manner in which they catch their prey; spending most of their adult lives using their hooked forelimbs to hang from the leaves and stems of plants, their long hindlegs have developed into clawed appendages used to grab and impale smaller invertebrates that fly or crawl too close. Once prey is caught it can be lifted towards the head to be ground up by elongated an mouth ending in small-yet-powerful sharp-tipped mandibles, although males may also hang on to their speared prey and offer them to females as "nuptial gifts"; the larger the nuptial gift a male offers, the greater the chance that a female will accept his advances. Though a hangingfly's forelimbs are supremely well-adapted to hanging from leaves and its hindlimbs are sharp and powerful to aid in snagging passing prey neither are well-suited to supporting its weight when standing, and as a result many species are essentially unable unable to walk (instead moving between perches through slow, awkward flight.)

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Given its...less-than-weekly status Bug of the Week has metamorphosed into Bug Bites - Fast bug facts for the bug enjoyer on the go!

A male black-tipped hangingfly lets females know he has a “nuptial gift” (a dead bug) for them. If the gift is too small and the female takes less than 5 minutes to eat it, the female ends copulation and isn’t inseminated. If the gift takes around 20 minutes for her to eat, the male can successfully inseminate her.