Hangingfly


Bittacidae is a family of scorpionflies commonly called hangingflies or hanging scorpionflies.
The genus Bittacus, comprising approximately 75% of all species within the family, occurs worldwide. Other genera are mostly confined to South America or Australia. Members of this family may be confused with crane flies, in the order Diptera, but can be distinguished by their two pairs of wings and lack of halteres.
They are distinguished in the fact that during mating the male captures a prey insect and offers it to the female as a nuptial gift. The larger the prey item is, the more receptive the female will be to mating.
The new species, Bittacus lepiduscretaceus sp. nov. from the mid-Cretaceous Myanmar amber, is the earliest fossil record of Bittacus and the first record of Bittacus species in the Cretaceous. It has new morphological characters to enhance our knowledge of early evolution of Bittacus hangingflies.

Genera

This list is based on The World Checklist of extant Mecoptera Species. Presumably complete up to 1997, it is updated as needed. The number of species in each genus are in parentheses. A number of extinct genera have been described from the fossil record.