Boreus hyemalis

Snow flea
B. hyemalis
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Mecoptera
Family: Boreidae
Genus: Boreus
Species: B. hyemalis
Binomial name
Boreus hyemalis
Linnaeus, 1767

Boreus hyemalis (Syn.: Boreus hiemalis) is an insect, 3 to 4.5 millimetres long from the family of Boreidae. Its English name is snow flea, but this is also the (US) name of a type of springtail.

It has stubby, grey-brown wings with a metallic sheen. Snow fleas crawl or hop over the snow at temperatures around freezing point and thus resemble glacier fleas and snow scorpionflies (which in the UK are also known as snow fleas) of the springtail family in their behaviour.

The males have 4 short, wing vestiges which curve downwards at their ends. The females only have two scale-like wing vestiges. In general, the female may be recognised from a curved, sabre-like pipe that acts as an ovipositor. In their fully formed state, these animals are only found in the colder period of the year between October and March. During this time mating takes place. The larvae live on moss-covered areas and withdraw in September into holes in the group to pupate.

See also

Sources

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 6/13/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.