AY Honors/Insect/Strepsiptera

Strepsiptera

Twisted-winged Parasites (Strepsiptera)

Order: Strepsiptera

Description: The Strepsiptera (known in older literature as twisted-winged parasites) are an order of parasitic insects with nine families making up about 600 species. Their hosts include bees, wasps, leafhoppers, silverfish, and cockroaches. Male Strepsiptera have wings, legs, eyes, and antennae, and look like flies, though they generally have no useful mouthparts. Females, in all families except the Mengenillidae, never leave their host and lack wings and legs. Males have a very short adult lifetime (usually less than five hours) and do not feed as adults. Many of their mouth parts are modified into sensory structures.