scorpion fly

noun

1. any of various insects of the family Panorpidae, of the N hemisphere, having a scorpion-like but nonvenomous tail in the males, long antennae, and a beaklike snout: order Mecoptera

Example Sentences

Male scorpion flies may risk their lives swiping a dead insect from a spider’s web to offer a female as a nuptial gift.

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We believed that what applies to the scorpion fly also applies to humans.

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There are evolutionary theorists who describe scorpion flies as rapists, and Nobel laureate economists who insist that affairs of the human heart are best grasped through cost-benefit analysis.

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Mecoptera: long-winged: neuropterous insects with similar, large, unfolded wings; mouth mandibulate, prolonged into a beak: head free; thorax agglutinated; transformations complete: the scorpion flies or Panorpidae.

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We were biologists, and we knew that symmetrical scorpion flies attract more mates than asymmetrical ones.

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