Applegater
Spring 2011 9
Notes from a Rogue Entomologist:
The Snakefly—an Oregon native
BY RiChARD j. hiLtOn
Our native insect fauna is nothing
short of remarkable, but it seems like the
insect invaders and exotic pests get all the
press. While it is certainly understand-
able that a new or re-emerging pest will
get a lot of ink, the media does have a
tendency to go overboard. For
instance, the resurgence of the
bed bug, while an important story
has, in my opinion, been blown
out of proportion; “if it bleeds, it
leads” as the old press adage goes.
I do not mean to suggest that the
media should not be reporting on
blood sucking parasites, however,
I wish they would have spent at
least half as much time exposing
the Wall Street con artists as they
devoted to the bugs hiding under
our mattresses. But I digress. The
bed bug will have to wait while
I introduce one of our native
insects, the snakefly.
First, the snakefly is not
a true fly. True flies are a large
group of insects that only have
two wings, like the mosquito or
house fly, while most other adult
insects have four. Snakeflies are a
rather small group of insects re-
lated to lacewings. The wings fold over the
body like a tent when the insect is at rest
and have a netlike venation. Some of our
local snakefly species can get fairly large,
with an overall body length of almost an
inch and if you happen to see a female
with her long slender ovipositor, the total
length can approach one and a half inches.
You may see a snakefly alighting on your
window or screen as things warm up in
the spring and early summer. They are not
uncommon, particularly if you live near
wooded areas.
They get the name ‘snakefly’ due to
the fact that their prothorax, the segment
right behind the head, is quite elongated
which allows them to raise their head well
above their body giving them a decid-
edly longneck or snakelike appearance.
Snakeflies are voracious predators in
both the adult and larval stages and are
considered to be beneficial insects in our
local orchards. The larvae also get quite
large and have a long slithering body
that with not too much imagination can
resemble a snake. I found a report stating
that snakefly larvae were one of only two
insects that could move as fast backwards
as forwards but I do not know how much
actual research went into that determina-
tion. The larvae often inhabit bark and can
live for as long as two to three
years, which is unusual as few
insects live for over a year. On
more than one occasion I have
had large snakefly larvae brought
into the office and the first ques-
tion is usually “What the heck
is this thing?” followed by “Is it
dangerous?”
While snakeflies can look
scary, they are essentially harm-
less. The long ovipositor of the
female can be mistaken for a
stinger (and the stinger in bees
and wasps was originally derived
from an ovipositor) but snake-
flies do not sting. They do have
some substantial mandibles so
they might be able to deliver a
bite if handled too roughly but
that has not happened to me, at
least not yet. Once when I was
sampling pear orchards with a
beating tray, which is a low tech
method consisting of beating a tree limb
and catching what falls off on a flat piece of
white cloth, I made an interesting discov-
ery regarding the snakefly. I was collecting
all the beneficial insects in vials to take back
to the lab and determine the species but
when I found a snakefly that had fallen on
the tray all the vials were already occupied
so I put the snakefly in with a syrphid
or hover fly that I had collected. Hover
flies are true flies and their larvae are very
good predators of aphids and other soft
bodied insects. As you might guess, when
I returned to the lab, the vial which had
the snakefly and hover fly now contained
only the snakefly and the two wings of the
hover fly. Apparently snakeflies do not like
the taste of hover fly wings.
In the US, snakeflies are only found
west of the Rockies, but they are also
found in Europe and northern Asia and
are considered to be relict species or living
fossils, as the species still alive appear to
be remnants of an earlier and more widely
distributed group. The oldest snakefly fos-
sils date back to the Jurassic period over 100
million years ago and it seems that many
snakefly species went extinct as a result
of the same asteroid impact that brought
about the demise of the dinosaurs. An
entomologist should probably not have a
favorite insect but I do have a soft spot for
the snakefly. I was a little dismayed to see
that the snakefly had won Arizona’s “ugly
bug” contest in 2009. The snakefly may be
odd looking, a little weird perhaps, but to
my eye the snakefly’s unusual appearance is
one of its more endearing features. So the
snakefly does not live back east but is an
Oregon native that thrives here, one of the
good guys that eats other insects—what’s
not to like?
Richard J. Hilton
541-772-5165 ext. 227
Senior Research Assistant / Entomologist
Oregon State University--
Southern Oregon Research and
Extension Center
PICTURE ABOVE: Snakefly adult--line drawing
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7519633@
N08/4344599919/
PICTURE LEFT: Snakefly larva--line drawing
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sdr4EyRWQ94/
TFzYdjTl61I/
It’s not too late to join
Voices of the Applegate!
We are a 30-member choir lead by our
talented director, Blake Weller. We sing
four-part harmony music with a great va-
riety of songs ranging from Zulu lullabies,
to Billy Joel, to Bach Cantatas.
Rehearsals began on March 30 and will
take place through June 15 every Wednes-
day evening at the Applegate Library at 7
pm. A concert will be held on June 19
at 3 pm in a location to be posted soon.
For more information call Kathy Escott at 541-846-6844.