Scorpion women [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] , or scorpion flies [7] [8] ( lat. Mecoptera ) , is a detachment of insects with a complete transformation .
| Scorpion girls |
Panorpa alpina |
| Scientific classification |
|---|
| No rank : | Bilateral symmetrical |
| Subtype : | Tracheo-breathing |
| Infraclass : | Winged insects |
| Treasure : | Fully Transformed Insects |
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| International scientific name |
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Mecoptera Hyatt et Arms , 1891 [1] |
| Families |
|---|
- Mosquitoes (Bittacidae)
- Glaciers (Boreidae)
- Real Scorpion Women (Panorpidae)
- † Aneuretopsychidae
- Apteropanorpidae
- Choristidae
- † Choristopsychidae
- † Cimbrophlebiidae
- † Dinopanorpidae
- Eomeropidae
- † Holcorpidae
- † Kaltanidae
- Meropeidae
- † Mesopanorpodidae
- † Mesopsychidae
- Nannochoristidae
- † Nedubroviidae
- Panorpodidae
- † Permochoristidae
- † Protomeropidae
- † Pseudonannochoristidae
- † Pseudopolycentropodidae
- † Thaumatomeropidae
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As of August 2013, 769 species are known, including 369 fossil species [9] [10] .
Content
Head
Head of
Panorpa communis . Large faceted eyes, long multi-segmented
antennas and a
rostrum are visible, under which a gnawing oral apparatus is located:
mandibles and
maxillae One of the characteristic features of the group can be called the presence of rostrum formed by elongated clypeus and subgenes . The size of this formation, however, varies up to a complete absence in representatives of the genus Brachypanorpa ( Panorpodidae ).
Behind the rostrum are elements of a gnawing oral apparatus. Maxillae are its longest element: their elongated styps adheres to the posterior membrane-like wall of the rostrum. The shape of the mandibles turns out to be associated with the characteristics of nutrition. So in herbivorous representatives of the families Boreidae , Panorpodidae and Eomeropidae they are short, thick and carry two (or more) subterminal teeth. In predatory forms ( Bittacidae ), the mandibles are long, flattened, obliquely cut, with a single tooth; function like scissors. Scavengers scavengers are characterized by a form of mandibles intermediate between these two options.
The number of antenna segments ranges from 16–20 for bittacid and boreid to 60 for ateropanorpids and choristids. Speaking about the variety of forms of antenna meters, they describe filiform and clear antenna. Probably, antennas play an important role in the search for food from scavenger species, as well as in the search for sexual partner, participating in chemoreception .
Chest
The chest is articulated with the head and abdomen freely and, in general, is characterized by a neuroteroid plan of structure. The main modifications of the thoracic region relate to the reduction of wings in representatives of some families and the transformation of limbs into grabbers due to the predatory way of life in bittacid.
In the initial version, two pairs of homogeneous, flat-folding wings have well-developed mesh venation and pronounced pterostigmus . The transparent (sometimes spotted) membrane of the wing is covered with short hairs. At the base of the wings are facet organs . Representatives of this detachment have a “weak flight” and in many scorpionesses (according to some estimates, one fifth of the known genera), the wings undergo reduction (sometimes until they disappear completely). Although similar manifestations are found in many families for which winged forms are more common (for example, Bittacidae), for two families - Apteropanorpidae and Boreidae - reduction of wings is more a rule than an exception. In particular, in boreids, the wings of females turn into sclerotized plates, and in males, they transform into narrow hooks, which are used to capture the female during copulation .
Most members of the order have running legs with a five-segmented paw and two claws. Of course, the role of limbs in the movement of wingless forms is especially significant. Modified to capture the victim limbs of adult insects of this family. Bittacidae carry only one large claw, two spurs on the shin. In addition, the fifth segment of such a limb is able to cling to the fourth. The extremities of scorpion women of this family are so long that it leads to the outward resemblance of a motionless insect to long-legged mosquitoes (Tipulidae).
Scorpionians are an ancient and primitive group of insects with a complete transformation, which was massive already in the Paleozoic and Mesozoic , have important stratigraphic and phylogenetic significance. Half of the known scorpion species are known only in the fossil state, mainly from wing prints. They appeared in the Permian period , whence, in 1904, the Austrian entomologist Anton Gandlirsch described the first oldest representative of the detachment discovered on the Kama River (in the Kazan field of the Quiet Mountains). It was so unusual that it was described as a scorpion Petromantis rossica Handl., The erroneousness of which was proved only a quarter of a century later by the Russian paleoentomologist A.V. Martynov . Perm findings are found on all continents except Antarctica. The most ancient and primitive family of the entire detachment should be considered the taxon † Kaltanidae (archetype, they have the most complete set of plesiomorphic characters). More than a dozen families of scorpion became extinct in the modern fauna are not represented († Aneuretopsychidae - † Choristopsychidae - † Cimbrophlebiidae - † dinopanorpidae - † Holcorpidae - † Kaltanidae - † Mesopanorpodidae - † Mesopsychidae - † Nedubroviidae - † Permochoristidae - † Pseudonannochoristidae - † Pseudopolycentropodidae - † Thaumatomeropidae ) [6] [11] [12] . According to some authors, the Paleozoic family † Protomeropidae also belongs to scorpionaids, which included the species Westphalomerope maryvonneae , considered the oldest insect with a complete transformation.
- Fortiholcorpa paradoxa
- Triassochorista kirgizica
Traditionally, scorpion flies, together with dipterans and fleas, are considered as part of the Antliophora group [13] .
Since the late 90s of the 20th century, the holophilia of scorpion flies (in the composition presented in this article) has been questioned. An analysis of new data on the structure of ovaries and the oral apparatus, as well as comparison of the primary DNA structure of several loci, made it possible to consider scorpion as a paraphyletic taxon with respect to another “order” of insects - fleas [14] . According to these ideas, the combined group of scorpion women and fleas consists of two treasures: one includes fleas and the families Boreidae and Nannochoristidae , and the remaining families of scorpion women fall into the other [15] .
