Two Neuropterans from Capetown: Antlion and Ribbon Winged Lacewing

danielj

February 10th, 2006 at 1:00 am

Tags

Still Unidentified
Hey Guys,
I’m living in CapeTown, South Africa and stayed in Cederberg for a week in December 2005 I managed to capture a dead species of one unidentified insect (which looks like a dragonfly/normal flying insect with its second pair of wings slightly modified)and missed the other (which resebles a cross breed butterfly/dragonfly??), but i did manage to capture them both on camera. Please could you have a look and see if you’ve ever come accross something similar or the same. I have contacted our Dr’s at the museum of CapeTown SA. but i still havnt recieved any reply yet??? Anyway maybe you guys could come up with something and hopefully get back to me. Many thanks
Clyde Phillips


Antlion	Ribbon Winged Lacewing

Hi Clyde,
One of your exotic insects is an Antlion. We are going to see if Eric Eaton will help us on the long tailed specimen. Here is Eric’s input: ” With the antlion is another Neuroptera, actually, but I can’t blame anyone for not having a clue. The Nemopteridae family is so bizarre. These are the spoon-winged, ribbon-winged, and thread-winged lacewings. I believe they are all found only in the Old World. The larvae are REALLY strange, many of them looking like giraffe-necked versions of antlion larvae!”

Many Thanks for your speedy reply, I have to say that I am a little too excited than I should be…lol, but its great to know that I’m not the only one that has seen these insects… You have a brilliant site and is great for the “ento-enthusiasts”, will be definantly spreading the word about your site, its a warm welcome from the far cry of insect websites. Many thanks and kind regards
Clyde Phillips