Neuroptera

For the obsolete concept of the Neuroptera including alderflies, dobsonflies, fishflies and snakeflies, see Neuropterida.
"Lacewing" redirects here. For the butterflies called thus, see Cethosia.
Net-winged insects
Fossil range: Permian-Recent
Unidentified green lacewing. These are probably the most familiar Neuroptera.
Unidentified green lacewing. These are probably the most familiar Neuroptera.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Class: Insecta
Subclass: Pterygota
Infraclass: Neoptera
Superorder: Endopterygota or Neuropterida
Order: Neuroptera
Linnaeus, 1758
Suborders

Hemerobiiformia
Myrmeleontiformia
and see text

The insect order Neuroptera, or net-winged insects, includes the lacewings, mantidflies, antlions, and their relatives. The order contains some 4,000 species. Traditionally, the group that was once known as Planipennia, with the Neuroptera at that time also including alderflies, fishflies, dobsonflies and snakeflies, but these are now generally considered to be separate orders (the Megaloptera and Raphidioptera). Sometimes the name Neuropterida[1] is used to refer to these three orders as a group. This is either placed at superorder rank, with the Endopterygota becoming an unranked clade above it, or the Endopterygota are maintained as a superorder, with an unranked Neuropterida being a part of them. Within the endopterygotes, the closest living relatives of the neuropteridan clade are the beetles. The common name lacewings is often used for the most widely known net-winges insects - the green lacewings (Chrysopidae) - but actually most members of the Neuroptera are referred to as some sort of "lacewing".

The adults of this order possess four membranous wings, with the forewings and hindwings about the same size, and with many veins. They have chewing mouthparts, and undergo complete metamorphosis.

Neuropterans first appeared during the Permian Period, and continued to diversify through the Mesozoic Era[2]. During this time several unusually large forms evolved, especially in the extinct family Kalligrammatidae, often referred to as "the butterflies of the Jurassic" due to their large, patterned wings[3].

Contents

Life cycle and ecology

Life cycle of lacewings

The larvae of most families are predators. Many chrysopids eat aphids and other pest insects, and have been used for biological control (either from commercial distributors but also abundant and widespread in nature). Larvae in various families cover themselves in debris (sometimes including dead prey insects) as camouflage, taken to an extreme in the ant lions, which bury themselves completely out of sight and ambush prey from "pits" in the soil. Larvae of some Ithonidae are root feeders, and larvae of Sisyridae are aquatic, and feed on freshwater sponges. A few mantispids are parasites of spider egg sacs.

As in other holometabolic orders, there is a pupal stage, generally enclosed in some form of cocoon composed of silk and soil or other debris. Adults of many groups are also predatory, but some do not feed, or consume only nectar.

Taxonomy and systematics

The understanding of neuropteran phylogeny has vastly improved since the mid-1990s, not the least courtesy of the ever-growing fossil record.[4] In 1995, for example, it was simply known that the Megaloptera and Raphidioptera were not part of the Neuroptera in the strict sense, and the Mantispoidea and part of the Myrmeleontoidea were the only groups that could be confirmed by cladistic analysis.[5] Though the relationships of some families remain to be fully understood, most major lineages of Neuropterida can nowadays be robustly placed in an evolutionary context.[6]

A 49-million-year-old fossil wing of Palaeopsychops marringerae (Polystoechotidae), showing color pattern
Kalligramma haeckeli fossil
Chrysoperla carnea (Chrysopidae)
Drepanepteryx phalaenoides (Hemerobiidae)
Ditaxis biseriata (Mantispidae)
Euroleon nostras (Myrmeleontidae)

Apart from a few groups that are quite basal or of uncertain position, the net-winged insects can be divided into two suborders, the Myrmeleontiformia and the Hemerobiiformia. The primitive Nevrorthidae, the most ancient group of living neuropterans, are sometimes considered a third suborder Nevrorthiformia or included in the Hemerobiiformia and more specifically in the Osmyloidea. But actually they are better considered a very basal lineage.[6]

Basal and unresolved forms

Suborder Hemerobiiformia

Suborder Myrmeleontiformia

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Also called "Neuropteroidea", though the ending "-oidea" is normally used for superfamilies
  2. ↑ Ponomarenko & Shcherbakov (2004)
  3. ↑ Engel (2005)
  4. ↑ Grimaldi & Engel (2005)
  5. ↑ Oswald (1995)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 See references in Haaramo (2008)
  7. ↑ "Neurorthidae" is a lapsus
  8. ↑ Not in Haaramo (2008), but this taxon, for some time considered obsolete following questions about the affiliations of the Osmylopsychopidae, warrants acceptance as the three families therein form a clade.

References

External links