Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Common scorpionfly (male)

Panorpa communis

Description:

The common scorpionfly has a black and yellow body, with a reddish head and tail. The male possesses a pair of claspers at the end of its tail (for holding the female during mating), giving it a scorpion-like appearance; it is not a stinger. Its head, mounted with large eyes, is drawn into a prominent, downward pointing beak, which opens at the tip of its head (see second shot).

Habitat:

A shady clearing in mixed deciduous-pine forest, alt. 1200 m ASL. Native to Western Europe.

Notes:

Although fully winged, the adults rarely fly and spend most of their time crawling on vegetation in damp, shaded places.

1 Species ID Suggestions

Common Scorpionfly (Male)
Panorpa communis Panorpa communis


Sign in to suggest organism ID

2 Comments

DanielePralong
DanielePralong 11 years ago

Thank you Satyen and Cindy!

Wild Things
Wild Things 11 years ago

Wow!

DanielePralong
Spotted by
DanielePralong

Rougemont, Vaud, Switzerland

Spotted on Jul 24, 2012
Submitted on Aug 6, 2012

Related Spottings

Scorpionfly Common scorpionfly Panorpa pryeri Panorpa japonica

Nearby Spottings

Scotch Argus Crambid moth Marbled White (female) -  Demi-deuil Catoptria moth

Reference

Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team