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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Antlions, Lacewings, and Allies (Neuroptera) » Lacewings and Allies (Hemerobiiformia) » Giant and Moth Lacewings (Ithonidae)

Family Ithonidae - Giant and Moth Lacewings

Classification · Other Common Names · Synonyms and other taxonomic changes · Numbers · Size · Identification · Range · Habitat · Life Cycle · Remarks · Works Cited

Fossil Palaeopsychops marringerae holotype # SR 97-08-05

giant lacewing - Platystoechotes lineatus

Giant Lacewing - Polystoechotes punctata

Polystoechotes punctata? - Polystoechotes punctata

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Neuroptera (Antlions, Lacewings, and Allies)

Suborder Hemerobiiformia (Lacewings and Allies)

Family Ithonidae (Giant and Moth Lacewings)

Other Common Names

Giant lacewings (for the former Polystoechotidae)

Moth lacewings, moth-like lacewings (for the former Ithonidae s.s.)

Montane lacewings (for the former Rapismatidae from India through southeast Asia)

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

Polystoechotidae(1)

Rapismatidae(1)

Numbers

3 spp. in 3 genera in our area(2); 44 spp. in 10 genera worldwide(3)(4)

Size

Length to over 50 mm

Identification

Wing venation of Polystoechotes punctata:

Overview of Species

Platystoechotes lineatus Polystoechotes punctata Oliarces clara

Range

Western US in our area.(2) Globally found in the Nearctic, Neotropical, Australasian, and Indomalayan realms.

Habitat

Oliarces is found in desert environments.

Life Cycle

Larvae of Oliarces are subterranean; adults emerge in mass for a few days each year, mate, then die. The lifestyle of our other genera is poorly known.

Remarks

See discussion of taxonomy at the BugGuide Taxonomy proposals forum.

Works Cited

1.	Phylogeny of Moth Lacewings and Giant Lacewings Using DNA Sequence Data, Morphology, and Fossils Shaun L. Winterton and Vladimir N. Makarkin. 2010. Annals of the Entomological Society of America, Volume 103, Issue 4, Pages 511–522.

2.	Species catalog of the Neuroptera, Megaloptera, and Raphidioptera of America North of Mexico Penny N.D., Adams P.A., Stange L.A. 1997. Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 50: 39‒114.

3.	Rediscovery of Polystoechotes gazullai Navás (Neuroptera: Polystoechotidae) J.D. Oswald. 1998. Proc. Entomol. Soc. Wash. 100(3): 389-394.

4.	Lacewing Digital Library

Contributed by v belov on 16 July, 2009 - 12:26pm
Additional contributions by cotinis, Aaron Schusteff, metrioptera, PaleoJon
Last updated 12 January, 2024 - 7:22pm

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