Well, if you've been playing along at home, you should recall that we've had pseudoscorpion here previously... so now we have a scorpionfly as well.

Unfortunately this isn't the best image (especially since the depth of field starts to blur out on its namesake scorpion looking tail), but it was the best one I came back with. I'll have to keep an eye out and see if I can locate another one of these and get a better photo next time.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro, 1/120 sec at f/8. Canon Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX in ETTL mode. ISO 100. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

Doing some quick research revealed that the tail is not a stinger like that of an actual scorpion, but rather the male genitals. Additionally, scorpion flies appear to be predatory, and this one looks like he is in the middle of a meal - let's hope it is a mosquito!

Thanks for stopping by!

- Bill