Harpobittacus
Harpobittacus septentrionis
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Mecoptera
Family: Bittacidae
Genus: Harpobittacus
Gerstaecker, 1885

Harpobittacus is a genus of hangingfly of the family Bittacidae found in Australia.[1]

Habitat and Development

Species of Harpobittacus are found in moist environments as larvae and adults. The adults are active from October to February and lay their eggs in the summer. They undergo metamorphosis, beginning with the female laying her cube–shaped eggs in the soil. The larva pupate underground, remaining moist to prevent desiccation and once they hatch, they feed on soil, mosses, dead insects, and leaf litter. [2][3]

Adults normally display black bodies with orange markings and have claws at the ends of their long legs. [4] They catch prey by hanging from vegetation with their forelegs and capturing small insects that get close with their hind-legs. They feed by holding the insect in their mouth, sucking out the soft tissues and juices and dropping the empty chitinous shells.[2][5]

Mating

Harpobittacus species exhibit some less common mating strategies, including pheromone secretion, nuptial gifts, and cryptic female choice.[6][7][8][9]

Male competition

When males are attempting to attract females, other nearby males may approach in an attempt to steal his prey, using a tactic known as prey piracy. [6] [7]The males engage in male–male competition by fighting using their long legs to attack. The larger male has the advantage, as well as the original owner of the prey, due to having a better grip. Oftentimes, no harm is caused to either male, meaning fighting has a low cost associated with it. Males will also frequently use a conditional strategy of switching between hunting their own prey and stealing from other males. [10]

Nuptial gifts

Males that have captured prey and are looking to mate will release a sex pheromone to attract prospective females. Once the male has attracted a female, he will present the prey, or nuptial gift, for the female to eat while they copulate. The nuptial gift is normally an arthropod that they've caught and deemed large enough to be able to attract a female with. [8]The catching of prey can be energetically costly to the males, however they often eat some of the prey before offering it to prospective mates. The male will give the female a taste and then he will prevent her from eating it for the first several minutes as he grasps the tip of the female's abdomen with his genital claspers. This allows him to prolong the length of copulation, increasing the amount of sperm transferred to the female. Eventually, he gives her the prey and she continues to eat throughout the duration of copulation. Once the female stops eating, copulation ceases and she flies away. [11]

Female choice behavior

Females of Harpobittacus species exert choice on which males to mate with and which will sire her offspring. Preliminary decisions are made by females based on the size of the prey the male is attempting to give her. If the prey is too small, she will often mate for a very short time or not at all. Females exercise post-copulatory control after mating with multiple males by determining rate of fertilization by each male. When females mate with males with small gifts, they immediately remate until they find a male with a large prey. Then females enter periods of sexual non receptivity and begin laying eggs, providing the male with the large gift the last–male sperm precedence, greatly increasing the odds of him parenting most of her offspring.[9] By mating with multiple males, females can benefit by getting many nuptial gifts, which provide her with more energy for egg development. It also increases the genetic diversity of her offspring by having multiple different sires. [12][13]

Species

The genus contains the following species.[14]

  • Harpobittacus albatus Riek, 1954
  • Harpobittacus australis Klug, 1838
  • Harpobittacus christine Lambkin, 1994
  • Harpobittacus nigriceps Selys-Longchamps, 1868
  • Harpobittacus phaeoscius Riek, 1954
  • Harpobittacus quasisimilis Lambkin, 1994
  • Harpobittacus rubricatus Riek, 1954
  • Harpobittacus scheibeli Esben-Petersen, 1935
  • Harpobittacus septentrionis Lambkin, 1994
  • Harpobittacus similis Esben-Petersen, 1935
  • Harpobittacus tillyardi Esben-Petersen, 1915

References

  1. ↑ "Atlas of Living Australia_Harpobittacus distribution". Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  2. 1 2 "Port Moresby Project - October 1966-October 1970 - North wall (from yard area), 13 February 1968". 2021-03-08. doi:10.47688/rba_archives_pn-012502. S2CID 242759298. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. ↑ "Scorpionflies of Kentucky - University of Kentucky Entomology". www.uky.edu. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  4. ↑ "Harpobittacus australis (Klug, 1838), Scorpion Fly". Museums Victoria Collections. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  5. ↑ "Harpobittacus australis sightings - Canberra Nature Map". canberra.naturemapr.org. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  6. 1 2 Alcock, John (November 2, 1979). "Selective Mate Choice by Females of Harpobittacus Australis (Mecoptera: Bittacidae)". Psyche: A Journal of Entomology. 86 (2–3): 213–217. doi:10.1155/1979/92786. ISSN 0033-2615.
  7. 1 2 Crossley, A. C.; Waterhouse, D. F. (1969-01-01). "The ultrastructure of a pheromone-secreting gland in the male scorpion-fly Harpobittacus Australis (Bittacidae: Mecoptera)". Tissue and Cell. 1 (2): 273–294. doi:10.1016/S0040-8166(69)80026-1. ISSN 0040-8166. PMID 18631469.
  8. 1 2 Palmer, Christopher (2010-01-01). "Diversity of feeding strategies in adult Mecoptera". Terrestrial Arthropod Reviews. 3 (2): 111–128. doi:10.1163/187498310X519716. ISSN 1874-9836.
  9. 1 2 Thornhill, Randy (December 1983). "Cryptic Female Choice and Its Implications in the Scorpionfly Harpobittacus nigriceps". The American Naturalist. 122 (6): 765–788. doi:10.1086/284170. ISSN 0003-0147. S2CID 83777666.
  10. ↑ Thornhill, Randy (1984). "Fighting and Assessment in Harpobittacus Scorpionflies". Evolution. 38 (1): 204–214. doi:10.2307/2408558. ISSN 0014-3820. JSTOR 2408558. PMID 28556069.
  11. ↑ Gwynne, Darryl T. (November 1984). "Nuptial Feeding Behaviour and Female Choice of Mates in Harpobittacus Similis (Mecoptera: Bittacidae)". Australian Journal of Entomology. 23 (4): 271–276. doi:10.1111/j.1440-6055.1984.tb01960.x. ISSN 1326-6756.
  12. ↑ Firman, Renée C.; Gasparini, Clelia; Manier, Mollie K.; Pizzari, Tommaso (2017-05-01). "Postmating Female Control: 20 Years of Cryptic Female Choice". Trends in Ecology & Evolution. 32 (5): 368–382. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2017.02.010. ISSN 0169-5347. PMC 5511330. PMID 28318651.
  13. ↑ Hughes, Austin L.; Hughes, Marianne K. (1985-10-01). "Female choice of mates in a polygynous insect, the whitespotted sawyer Monochamus scutellatus". Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 17 (4): 385–387. doi:10.1007/BF00293217. ISSN 1432-0762. S2CID 30139727.
  14. ↑ "World Checklist of Extant Mecoptera Species". Retrieved 28 March 2017.
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