The insect order Neuroptera, or net-winged insects, includes the lacewings, mantidflies, antlions, and their relatives. The order consists of some 6,000 species. Neuroptera can be grouped together with the Megaloptera and Raphidioptera in the unranked taxon Neuropterida including: alderflies, fishflies, dobsonflies, and snakeflies.
The antlions are a group of about 2,000 species of insect in the family Myrmeleontidae, known for the fiercely predatory habits of their larvae, which in many species dig pits to trap passing ants or other prey. The adult insects are less well known, due to their relatively short lifespans compared to the larvae. Adults mostly fly at dusk or after dark, and may be mistakenly identified as dragonflies or damselflies; they are sometimes known as antlion lacewings. In North America, the larvae are sometimes referred to as doodlebugs because of the strange marks they leave in the sand.
Green lacewings are insects in the large family Chrysopidae of the order Neuroptera. There are about 85 genera and 1,300–2,000 species in this widespread group. Members of the genera Chrysopa and Chrysoperla are very common in North America and Europe; they are very similar and many of their species have been moved from one genus to the other time and again, and in the nonscientific literature assignment to Chrysopa and Chrysoperla can rarely be relied upon. Since they are the most familiar neuropterans to many people, they are often simply called "lacewings". Since most of the diversity of Neuroptera are properly referred to as some sort of "lacewing", common lacewings is preferable.
Snakeflies are a group of predatory insects comprising the order Raphidioptera with two extant families: Raphidiidae and Inocelliidae, consisting of roughly 260 species. In the past, the group had a much wider distribution than it does now; snakeflies are found in temperate regions worldwide but are absent from the tropics and the southern hemisphere. They are a relict group and have been considered living fossils, as species from the early Jurassic period closely resemble modern-day species.
Euroleon nostras is a species of antlion found over most of Europe. The scientific name can be translated as "our European [ant] lion". Adults resemble dragonflies or damselflies and may reach up to 30 mm (1.2 in) long, with a wingspan of 70 mm (2.8 in). The larvae prey on ants and other small creatures and require dry sandy soil in which to dig their pitfall traps.
The Therevidae are a family of flies of the superfamily Asiloidea commonly known as stiletto flies. The family contains about 1,600 described species worldwide, most diverse in arid and semiarid regions with sandy soils. The larvae are predators of insect larvae in soil.
Mantispidae, known commonly as mantidflies, mantispids, mantid lacewings, mantisflies or mantis-flies, is a family of small to moderate-sized insects in the order Neuroptera. There are many genera with around 400 species worldwide, especially in the tropics and subtropics. Only 5 species of Mantispa occur in Europe.
The Brachyceran family Vermileonidae is a small family of uncertain affinities and unusual biology. It includes fewer than 80 described species, most of them rare and with restricted distribution, in 10 genera. Historically the vermileonids had been regarded as belonging to the family Rhagionidae, possibly in a subfamily Vermileoninae. Their biology and morphology is so markedly distinct from the main Rhagionidae sensu stricto however, that the placement as a separate family has been widely accepted.
Ascalaphidae is a family of insects in the order Neuroptera, generally called owlflies. They are fast-flying crepuscular or diurnal predators of other flying insects, and have large bulging eyes and strongly knobbed antennae.
Osmylidae are a small family of winged insects of the net-winged insect order Neuroptera. The osmylids, also called stream lacewings or giant lacewings, are found all over the world. A common species through most of Europe is Osmylus fulvicephalus.
The Neuropterida are a clade, sometimes placed at superorder level, of holometabolous insects with over 5,700 described species, containing the orders Neuroptera, Megaloptera, and Raphidioptera (snakeflies).
Nymphes myrmeleonides is an Australian Neuroptera, known as the blue eyes lacewing. It is found in areas of New South Wales and Queensland. The species have a body length of up to 4 centimetres (1.6 in) and a wingspan of up to 11 cm (4.3 in), each wing ending in a white tip. The larvae of N. myrmeleonides resemble antlions and construct pit traps by burrowing into loose soil.
Erikssonia edgei, commonly known as the Waterberg copper, tilodi copper or Edge's acraea copper, is an obligate myrmecophylous lycaenid butterfly, which is native to Limpopo, South Africa. The critically endangered butterfly occurs in high-altitude grasslands on sandy substrates, and has only been obtained from the type and one subsequent locality. The population at the type locality, a farm in the Waterberg, went extinct about 12 years after its 1980 discovery. It was afforded species status in 2010, when no extant populations were known. The status of two populations, discovered in 2013 at a private nature reserve to the southeast, remains indeterminate.
Chrysemosa is a genus of green lacewings in the family Chrysopidae. They are distinguished from related genera based on male genital structures. The small and distinctive C. jeanneli is a commonly encountered species in orchards, fields and gardens of southern Africa.
Acanthaclisini is a tribe in the antlion subfamily Acanthaclisinae.
Palpares sobrinus is a species of antlion in the family Myrmeleontidae. It is found in southern Africa.
Neuroleon is a large and complex genus of antlions in the subfamily Myrmeleontinae. There are more than 150 described species from Europe, Asia and Africa, and there are many undescribed taxa. Where the biology of the larvae is known, they live freely in sand or in sheltered rock crevices.
Palpares caffer is a species of antlions in the family Myrmeleontidae, which is native to southern Africa. It was described by Hermann Burmeister in 1839.
Jaya is a genus of antlions (Myrmeleontidae) with 5 species occurring in Africa and Eurasia.
Syngenes is a genus of antlions belonging to the family Myrmeleontidae.
