This week we’re covering a true North Carolina (and Tennessee) native insect, the Carolina scorpionfly, Panorpa carolinensis Banks, 1905 (Mecoptera: Panorpidae). We have several species of scorpionfly in the state, but this one has a relatively restricted range: high elevantions in the Black Mountains. Why so restricted? We don’t know! In fact, like most insects in North Carolina, we know very little about this handsome species.

Nathan Banks (1905) described this species based on male and female specimens collected in the Black Mountains of western North Carolina.

A confident diagnosis of this species requires close examination of the male genitalia. Penny provides a more compete diagnosis an the Mecoptera of North America website, but here’s how Banks (1905) diagnosed the P. carolinensis:

Head yellowish, black around ocelli; antenna brown; thorax brownish yellow; abdomen and legs yellowish. Wings hyaline whitish, with black bands and spots as follows: an apical band, a broad pterostigmatal band, nearly touching the apical at each margin, and with a pale spot on the posterior border, where the band is broader than elsewhere, a large triangular costal spot near middle of wing, and extending almost half-way across it; a broad (not geniculate) sub-basal band, and a costal and anal spot black; venation dark. Wings slender, the subcosta reaches pterostigma in fore wings; in the male the 5th segment has a distinct horn above. Length, I5 mm.

We don’t know very much about this species other than what has been reported by Banks (1905) Byers (1954). Specimens have only been collected from relatively high elevations (usually over 5000 ft), in the mountains of western NC and eastern TN. They’re typically found in shady areas, particularly in amongst hemlocks and hardwoods, but also around spruce.

Panorpa carolinensis has only been collected in North Carolina and Tennessee. The NCSU Insect Museum has several specimens that were collected in New England. These either represent a significant range extension, or their identification needs to be confirmed!

• Banks, N. 1905. Descriptions of new species of neuropterous insects from the Black Mountains, N.C. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 21:215-218. (PDF available here)
• Penny, N. Panorpa carolinensis page. In: Mecoptera of North America. [accessed 24 May 2011] California Academy of Sciences.
• Panorpa carolinensis page at GBIF (no records as of 25 May 2011)
• Byers, G. W. 1954. Notes on North American Mecoptera. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 47 (3): 484-510