A small order of insects called the scorpion flies. Characteristic of the adult insect is the peculiar prolongation of the head into a beak, which bears chewing mouthparts. They are small to medium in size. The insects either have two pairs of large, net-veined wings of equal size, often with dark areas, or have short and aborted wings. The legs are long and slender. In some species, the male abdomen has a terminal enlargement which is held recurved over the back so that he resembles a scorpion, thus the common name (see illus.). The larvae are eruciform (resembling caterpillars), and the pupae exarate; that is, the appendages are free from the body and artificially movable. The Mecoptera are found in moist habitats within densely wooded areas. The adults are omnivorous but feed chiefly on small insects.