Coniopterygidae

Coniopteryx, photographed by Tom Murray.

Belongs within: Neuropterida.

The Coniopterygidae, dustywings, are a group of minute lacewings, generally with wingspans less than 7 mm, and with reduced wing venation and a dense covering of a waxy or mealy secretion (Grimaldi & Engel 2005). Larvae are predators of small arthropods; adults may be predatory or herbivorous. Coniopterygids are divided between the subfamilies Coniopteryginae, Aleuropteryginae and Brucheiserinae. Aleuropteryginae have fore wings with 2 R-M crossveins near the centre of the wing and hind wings with Rs branching from R very near the wing base whereas Coniopteryginae have 1 R-M crossvein near the centre of the fore wing and the hind wing Rs not branching from R near the wing base (New 1991). The Brucheiserinae are a little-known group from southern South America with a broad pronotum and lateral lobes on the fourth tarsomeres.

<==Coniopterygidae [Coniopterygoidea] S07
    |--Brucheiserinae [Brucheiseridae] EWB18
    |--Aleuropteryginae GE05
    |    |--Juraconiopteryx zherichini GE05
    |    |--Heterocornis nigricornis N91, MC13
    |    |--Spiloconis N91
    |    `--Cryptoscenea N91
    |         |--C. australiensis N91
    |         |--C. evansorum Smithers 1984 T13
    |         `--C. obscurior WHW10
    `--Coniopteryginae N91
         |--Neosemidalis farinosa WHW10
         |--Conwentzia WHW10
         |    |--C. pineticola WHW10
         |    `--C. psociformis RD77
         |--Semidalis WHW10
         |    |--S. aleyrodiformis VM20
         |    |--S. obscura Sziráki & Greve 1996 A02
         |    `--S. vicina [=Coniopteryx vicina] VC07
         `--Coniopteryx Curtis 1834 S07
              |  i. s.: C. diptera Meinander 1971 S07
              |         C. pygmaea VM20
              |         C. tjederi Kimmins 1934 A02
              `--C. (Xeroconiopteryx Meinander 1972) S07
                   |--C. (X.) aegyptiaca S07
                   |--C. (X.) atlasensis Meinander 1963 S07
                   |--C. (X.) dentifera Meinander 1983 S07
                   |--C. (X.) kerzhneri Meinander 1971 S07
                   |--C. (X.) ketiae Monserrat 1985 S07
                   |--C. (X.) kinali Sziráki 2007 S08
                   |--C. (X.) loipetsederi Aspöck 1963 S07
                   |--C. (X.) mongolica Meinander 1969 S07
                   |--C. (X.) mucrogonarcuata Meinander 1979 S07
                   |--C. (X.) orba S07
                   |--C. (X.) perisi Monserrat 1976 S07
                   |--C. (X.) platyarcus Sziráki & Van Harten 2006 S07
                   `--C. (X.) rostrogonarcuata S07

Coniopterygidae incertae sedis:
  Glaesoconis GE05
    |--G. baliopteryx GE05
    |--G. cretica Meinander 1975 P92
    `--G. fadiacra P92
  Apoglaesoconis ackermani GE05
  Helicoconis T61
    |--H. hirtipennis Tjed. 1960 T61
    |--H. maroccana T61
    `--H. salti T61
  Perisemidalis R70
  Parasemidalis R70
  Libanosemidalis WHW10
  Hemisemidalis P92
  Coniortes P92
  Archiconiocompsa P92
  Archiconis P92
  Heminiphetia P92

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[A02] Aspöck, U. 2002. Phylogeny of the Neuropterida (Insecta: Holometabola). Zoologica Scripta 31: 51–55.

[EWB18] Engel, M. S., S. L. Winterton & L. C. V. Breitkreuz. 2018. Phylogeny and evolution of Neuropterida: where have wings of lace taken us? Annual Review of Entomology 63: 531–551.

[GE05] Grimaldi, D., & M. S. Engel. 2005. Evolution of the Insects. Cambridge University Press: New York.

[MC13] Majer, J. D., S. K. Callan, K. Edwards, N. R. Gunawardene & C. K. Taylor. 2013. Baseline survey of the terrestrial invertebrate fauna of Barrow Island. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 83: 13–112.

[N91] New, T. R. 1991. Neuroptera (lacewings). In: CSIRO. The Insects of Australia: A textbook for students and research workers vol. 1 pp. 525–542. Melbourne University Press: Carlton (Victoria).

[P92] Poinar, G. O., Jr. 1992. Life in Amber. Stanford University Press: Stanford.

[RD77] Richards, O. W., & R. G. Davies. 1977. Imms' General Textbook of Entomology 10^th ed. vol. 2. Classification and Biology. Chapman and Hall: London.

[R70] Riek, E. F. 1970. Neuroptera (lacewings). In: CSIRO. The Insects of Australia: A textbook for students and research workers pp. 472–494. Melbourne University Press.

[S07] Sziráki, G. 2007. Presence of the subgenus Xeroconiopteryx Meinander, 1972 in Hungary (Neuroptera: Coniopterygidae). Annales Historico-Naturales Musei Nationalis Hungarici 99: 93–100.

[T13] Taylor, C. K. 2013. Annotated bibliography for Barrow Island terrestrial invertebrates. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 83: 135–144.

[T61] Tjeder, B. 1961. Neuroptera-Planipennia. The lace-wings of southern Africa. 4. Family Hemerobiidae. In: Hanström, B., P. Brinck & G. Rudebeck (eds) South African Animal Life: Results of the Lund University Expedition in 1950–1951 vol. 8 pp. 296–408. Almqvist & Wiksell: Uppsala.

[VM20] Vasilikopoulos, A., B. Misof, K. Meusemann, D. Lieberz, T. Flouri, R. G. Beutel, O. Niehuis, T. Wappler, J. Rust, R. S. Peters, A. Donath, L. Podsiadlowski, C. Mayer, D. Bartel, A. Böhm, S. Liu, P. Kapli, C. Greve, J. E. Jepson, X. Liu, X. Zhou, H. Aspöck & U. Aspöck. 2020. An integrative phylogenomic approach to elucidate the evolutionary history and divergence times of Neuropterida (Insecta: Holometabola). BMC Evolutionary Biology 20: 64.

[VC07] Villanueva, R. T., & C. C. Childers. 2007. Insect predators of eriophyids on Florida citrus including a new predacious Lepidoptera and two cecidomyiids. In: Morales-Malacara, J. B., V. M. Behan-Pelletier, E. Ueckermann, T. M. Pérez, E. G. Estrada-Venegas & M. Badii (eds) Acarology XI: Proceedings of the International Congress pp. 391–395. Instituto de Biología and Faculdad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Sociedad Latinoamericana de Acarología: México.

[WHW10] Winterton, S. L., N. B. Hardy & B. M. Wiegmann. 2010. On wings of lace: phylogeny and Bayesian divergence time estimates of Neuropterida (Insecta) based on morphological and molecular data. Systematic Entomology 35: 349–378.

Last updated: 3 April 2022.