Nasty neighbour

I noticed this nasty-looking bug sitting close to me a few days ago when I was taking photos in the local peat bog. It looks like a mosquito on steroids.

It is a scorpionfly (one of the Panorpidae). It uses its long snout to scavenge on dead and dying insetcs. The males have a red tail that looks like the back end of a scorpion, but they can't sting with it; it just looks dangerous:

^{Olympus Stylus 1s, 300mm, ISO200, f5.6, 1/200s}

When it noticed me, it slid itself behind the grass it was sitting on:

^{Olympus Stylus 1s, 300mm, ISO200, f5.6, 1/250s}

The female doesn't have the scorpion tail:

^{Olympus Stylus 1s, 200mm, ISO200, f5.6, 1/250s}

She still manages to look nasty, though.