Scorpion Fly

The Scorpion Fly has a black and yellow body, a reddish head which is greatly elongated into a beak, with their jaws situated at the end. They have dark patches on their wings and the males have a scorpion-like tail, which is where they get their name. Despite their name and appearance, they are harmless and don’t sting.

Scorpion Flies usually mate at night. Mating can be a dangerous time for the male, as the female may kill him. To avoid this happening, the male presents his partner with a gift of a drop of saliva. For Scorpion Flies, this is the equivalent to a bunch of flowers or a box of chocolates.

The female Scorpion Fly will lay her eggs in soil and the emerging larvae are caterpillar-like and live and pupate at the soil surface, before emerging as adults. There is only one generation each year.

Scorpion Flies can be seen from May to September, in hedgerows, nettle beds and well wooded areas.

They scavenge on dead insects, which they frequently steal from the webs of spiders.

The Scorpion Fly belongs to the ancient group of insects known as the ‘Mecopterans’. They can be traced back more than 250 million years. It is believed that butterflies and other species of insect evolved from the ancestors of the Mecopterans.