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'Snow scorpionflies' (Boreidae), sometimes known as 'snow fleas', are a very small family of Scorpionflies, containing only around 30 species, all of which are boreal or high-altitude species in the Northern Hemisphere. Recent research indicates that the boreids are more closely related to fleas than to other scorpionflies, which renders the order Mecoptera paraphyletic if the order Siphonaptera is excluded from it.
These insects are small (typically 6mm or less), with the wings reduced to bristles or absent, and they are somewhat compressed, so there is in fact some resemblance to fleas. They are most commonly active during the winter months, towards the transition into spring, and the larvae typically feed on mosses. The adults will often disperse between breeding areas by walking across the open snow, thus the common name. The males use their bristle-like wings to help grasp the female while mating.

Contents

Species

References

See also

Species

This list is adapted from the ''World Checklist of extant Mecoptera species'' Boreidae, and complete as of 1997.

★ ''Boreus'' Latreille, 1816
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★ ''Boreus beybienkoi'' 1962 (Kyrghyzstan)
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★ ''Boreus borealis'' Banks, 1923 (Arkansas)
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★ ''Boreus brumalis'' Fitch, 1847 (USA, Canada)
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★ ''Boreus californicus'' Packard, 1870 (USA, Canada)
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★ ''Boreus chadzhigireji'' Pliginsky, 1914 (Ukraine)
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★ ''Boreus coloradensis'' Byers, 1955 (USA)
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★ ''Boreus elegans'' Carpenter, 1935 (USA, Canada)
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★ ''Boreus hyemalis'' (Linnaeus), 1767 (Europe)
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★ ''Boreus intermedius'' Lloyd, 1934 (Arkansas)
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★ ''Boreus jacutensis'' Plutenko, 1984 (Russia)
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★ ''Boreus jezoensis'' Hori & Morimoto, 1996 (Japan)
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★ ''Boreus kratochvili'' Mayer, 1938 (Czechoslovakia)
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★ ''Boreus lokayi'' Klapálek, 1901 (Romania)
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★ ''Boreus navasi'' Pliginsky, 1914 (Ukraine)
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★ ''Boreus nivoriundus'' Fitch, 1847 (USA)
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★ ''Boreus nix'' Carpenter, 1935 (USA, Canada)
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★ ''Boreus orientalis'' Martynova, 1954 (Far Eastern Russia)
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★ ''Boreus pilosus'' Carpenter, 1935 (USA, Canada)
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★ ''Boreus reductus'' Carpenter, 1933 (USA, Canada)
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★ ''Boreus semenovi'' Pliginsky, 1930 (Far Eastern Russia)
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★ ''Boreus sjoestedti'' Navás, 1925 (Kamtchatka Peninsula)
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★ ''Boreus tardokijanensis'' Plutenko, 1985 (Russia)
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★ ''Boreus vlasovi'' Martynova, 1954 (Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan)
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★ ''Boreus westwoodi'' Hagen, 1866 (Europe)

★ ''Caurinus'' Russell, 1979
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★ ''Caurinus dectes'' Russell, 1979 (Oregon)

★ ''Hesperoboreus'' Penny, 1977
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★ ''Hesperoboreus brevicaudus'' (Byers, 1961) (USA)
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★ ''Hesperoboreus notoperates'' (Cooper, 1972) (California)

References

★ Mecoptera is paraphyletic: multiple genes and phylogeny of Mecoptera and Siphonaptera, Whiting, M. F., , , Zoologica Scripta, 2002 [1]

See also

★ Snow flies (''Chionea'') - a convergent genus of wingless crane flies

★ Apteropanorpidae - another family of wingless scorpionflies