A slender predatory insect with membranous wings, long legs, and a downward-pointing beak. The terminal swollen section of the male's abdomen is carried curved up like a scorpion's sting.
Order Mecoptera: several families, in particular Panorpidae
Example sentencesExamples
- Although his paper about cryptic female choice in the scorpion fly was a landmark, there was no intellectual stampede to see whether cryptic female choice was fact or simply a nice idea.
- The female scorpion fly is quite picky; she's looking for a mate with matched wings - a signal to the female that he's a good hunter.