#scorpionfly

The Common Scorpionfly (Panorpa communis)

Native to Europe and Northern Asia, this unique looking species has nothing to do with its namesake.

To win over females, males offer a gifts of saliva secretions and dead pray items. Males of this species are known for having a scorpion like tail the is actually its genitalia.

Spotted a handful of these silly creatures this afternoon near a cypress swamp. Panorpa lugubris, the mourning scorpionfly. Distant relatives of fleas. I make a small pilgrimage or 7 to this spot every year around this time in hopes of seeing them, as one does

Mourning Scorpionfly

What is up with these gorgeous goth princesses??? (Yes ik this one is a male but he’s still a gorgeous goth princess) They are also detritivores, and they even eat ✨human corpses✨so they can be used in forensics to tell how long someone has been dead!

Why did evolution decide to make this badass creature and can we get more like this??

I um… have this picture printed out and on my bulletin board…

Febugary day 23!!

Panorpa communis 🦂🪰

Today's animal of the day is Juracimbrophlebia ginkgofolia!

Image credit: Wang Chen

This extinct species of prehistoric scorpionfly lived during the Middle Jurassic period, around 165 million years ago, in what is now northeastern China. Its genus name is a combination of "Jurassic" and "Cimbrophlebia", which is another species of scorpionfly in the same family. Its species name is Latin for "ginkgo leaf" in reference to its unique appearance. Like many modern-day insects, Juracimbrophlebia looked a lot like leaves, specifically those of a ginkgo tree, to help it hide from predators, such as pterosaurs, early rodent-like mammals, and small, tree-climbing dinosaurs. This is the earliest known example of an animal using mimicry to disguise itself from predators, though there are likely many more species of prehistoric invertebrates that did so as well, but just haven't been discovered yet.

Photo credit: Yongjie Wang et al

This species is currently only known from a very well-preserved specimen discovered in 2012. It was found alongside some fossilized ginkgo leaves, and apparently, it was so well camouflaged that the researchers didn't even notice it at first, since they just thought it was another ginkgo leaf! While it is almost perfectly preserved, parts of the legs, antennae, and wingtips are missing, along with the body segments where the genitalia would have been, so paleontologists aren't sure if this individual was a male or female. While most other scorpionflies are pretty active, the body plan of Juracimbrophlebia seems to suggest it was pretty slow-moving and would've spent most of its time staying as still as possible to avoid being detected by predators.

Photo credit: H. Zell

Btw, both ginkgo trees and scorpionflies are still alive today, though the specific species are different from the ones that were alive during the Jurassic. The only surviving modern species of gingko is Ginkgo biloba, which first appeared during the Early Eocene. They can live for over 3,500 years, are resistant to many diseases, and have been known to survive some extremely destructive events, such as the bombing of Hiroshima! However, they are currently endangered in the wild due to deforestation. These plants produce fruit-like seeds that technically aren't fruit but look like it. These seeds are edible when cooked, but are extremely poisonous if eaten raw, and also smell really bad, so they're not often eaten.

Photo credit: Richard Bartz (common scorpionfly)