- Psychopsidae
Taxobox
name = Silky lacewings
fossil_range=Eocene - Recent
regnum =Animal ia
phylum =Arthropod a
subphylum =Hexapoda
classis =Insect a
subclassis =Pterygota
infraclassis =Neoptera
superordo =Endopterygota orNeuropterida
ordo =Neuroptera
subordo =Myrmeleontiformia
superfamilia =Nemopteroidea (see text)
familia = Psychopsidae
familia_authority =
subdivision_ranks =Genera
subdivision = Several, including:
"Psychopsis"
and see textThe Psychopsidae are a family of winged insects of the order
Neuroptera . They are commonly called silky lacewings.They were formerly placed in the
superfamily Hemerobioidea , but do not seem to be closely related to these net-winged insects at all. Rather, might be closer to theMyrmeleontoidea which contain for example the antlions (Myrmeleontidae ). In particular, the spoon-winged laceflies (Nemopteridae ) seem to be very closely related to the silky lacewings. These had at one time been placed in asuperfamily Nemopteroidea . Thefossil familyOsmylopsychopidae was - as indicated by theirscientific name - initially believed to be intermediate between the Psychopsidae and theOsmylidae . But actually these similarities are due toplesiomorph ies in the first case, and simply misperceived in the second; the osmylopsychopids are one of the basal lineages of the Myrmeleontoidea as traditionally defined. The Nemopteroidea were eventually abolished and its members included in the Myrmeleontoidea. But as the silky and spoon-winged lacewings together with the "butterfly" lacewings of theKalligrammatidae do seem to form a quite distinctclade among the expanded Myrmeleontoidea, it appears well warranted to reinstate the Nemopteroidea for them. [See references in Haaramo (2008)]A
fossil genus, "Propsychopsis ", has been described from theEocene . [Engel & Grimaldi (2007)]Footnotes
References
* (2007): The neuropterid fauna of Dominican and Mexican amber (Neuropterida, Megaloptera, Neuroptera). "American Museum Novitates" 3587: 1-58. [http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/dspace/bitstream/2246/5880/1/N3587.pdf PDF fulltext]
* (2008):Mikko's Phylogeny Archive : [http://www.helsinki.fi/~mhaaramo/metazoa/protostoma/arthropoda/insecta/neuropterida/neuroptera.html Neuroptera] . Version of 2008-MAR-11. Retrieved 2008-APR-27.
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