Biology And Biogeography Of Panorpidae In Qinling Mountains(Mecoptera)

The insects of Mecoptera distribute in different areas. They are very sensitive toenvironment as ecological indicators. The morphological, biogeographical and biologicalmethods were used to study the fauna composition, vertical distribution pattern, dominantspecies and the biological characteristics of these insects in Qinling Mountains. The mainresults are as follows:(1) There are 23 species in 2 genera of Panorpidae, of which one species is new tosciences and one new record for Shaanxi Province.(2) The Panorpidae fauna of Qinling Mountains locate at the transitive area between thePalaearcite and the Oriental Regions. The Palaearctic and Oriental proportions are very few,widely-distributed species slightly more, and endemic species abundant.(3) In the lower elevation area with abundant plant component, more species ofPanorpidae occur. With the increase of elevation, the number of species decreases. As speciesadapt to different habitats, the vertical distribution is distinct.(4) The Panorpidae mainly live in the mountain area of warm temperate zone, elevationbetween 1100m to 2300m, especially in Quercus varialilis zone.(5) In these areas, the dominant species are Panorpa emarginata Cheng, P. tincta Navas,P. sexspinosa Cheng and Neopanorpa longiprocessa Hua et Chou.(6) It is easy to collect specimens before or in the rain days.(7) The food criteria of this family are very wide. They are cannibals, when food is inshortage, they will eat the small and weak ones, they are scavengers and it is not suitable touse the insects of this family as predators to control the forest pests.(8) The copulation of N. longiprocessa Hua et Chou has been observed in middle June.Copulation generally took place in the afternoon and its duration generally varies from tenminutes to five hours. The notal procees of the third tergum in male is used to clasp the rightwings of the female when they copulate, seven pairs has been observed, males are always atthe right of females.(9) During oviposition, the daily maximum temperature is 23.2℃, minimum temperatureis 10.35℃, average temperature is 16.77℃, relative humidity is 85.5%. The fecundity variesamong different species.(10) Eggs were collected from five species of two genera.(11) Eleven species of Panorpa, one species of Neopanorpa and two species ofBittacidae were observed. Only P. decolorata Chou et Ran takes its wings like roof ridgewhen at rest, like that in the two species of Bittacidae. All the other species extend their wingsstraight backward.