Snakeflies

Order: Rapidioptera

Earlier this summer I posted this picture and one of my friends made the comment that it looks like a carousel ride from hell.  That made me chuckle.  But it’s true, this is one interesting looking insect, the stuff legends (or Harry Potter movies) are made of.  When hiking up Flagstaff Mountain near Libby, MT at the end of June, there were a bunch of these on the flowers along the trail.  I thought they looked like baby dragons. :-)

Let me tell you about this little lady...

Snakeflies are voracious predators (of small, weak prey) both as larvae and as adults.  The long prothorax (“neck”) helps it to rotate its head to find food.  When hunting, they strike at their prey in the same way that snakes do.  Some sources report that females wave their ovipositors when feeding, like a dog contentedly wagging its tail.  These insects are found throughout the Northern Hemisphere, but in the U.S. they are generally restricted to areas west of the Rocky Mountains.  

If you are looking for snakeflies, you can find adults on flowers, tree trunks, or other plants (though I did find one on the driver’s side window of my car in Arizona a few years ago).  The larvae, which look sort of creepy and snake-like as well, are usually found under bark or in rotting wood.  

Sources:

Daly and Doyen's Introduction to Insect Biology and Diversity by James P. Whitfield

http://bugguide.net/node/view/233370