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Sticker of Black-tipped hangingfly
Bug card No. 0495 of 4,939

Black-tipped hangingfly

Hylobittacus apicalis
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsOther insectsGardens and meadows6 legs

The black-tipped hangingfly has long dangly legs and four wings. It is not a true fly but a cousin of the scorpionflies. It got its name because it spends its time hanging from leaves by its front legs, with its wings spread out.

Lives in
The United States and Mexico, among low plants
Length
1.9 cm (0.75 in)
Top speed
about 12 km/h (7.5 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. It has no sting and is a slow, gentle flier.
What does it eat?
It hunts small insects, most often aphids, leafhoppers and treehoppers. It grabs them with its hooked back feet.
For real!Photo of Black-tipped hangingfly
Picture by Cody Hough. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Black-tipped hangingfly about 1.9 cm long (0.75 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 3 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 32 secondsmoves 180 times its own body length every second

How big is Black-tipped hangingfly compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its feet are made for hanging, not walking. It can hardly walk at all.

2

It flies slowly and only for short hops, usually shorter than about 1.2 metres.

3

To win a female, a male catches an insect and offers it to her as a present. The bigger the present, the better.

4

A male can send out a smell that females notice from 10 to 15 metres away.

5

Spider webs are its biggest danger, because it often blunders into them while flying through the plants.

you asked

Most asked questions about Black-tipped hangingfly

?Is a hangingfly dangerous?

No. It has no sting and is harmless to people.

?Why is it called a hangingfly?

Because it rests by hanging from leaves with its front legs instead of standing on them.

?What does the black-tipped hangingfly eat?

Small insects such as aphids, leafhoppers and treehoppers, which it catches with its back feet.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Hylobittacus apicalis
Group
Other insects
Family
Bittacidae
Classification
Insecta > Mecoptera > Bittacidae
Lives on
North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Hylobittacus apicalis (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Cody Hough. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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