Nevrorthidae
| Nevrorthidae | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the subordination | ||||||||||||
| Nevrorthiformia | ||||||||||||
| Aspöck , 1995 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the family | ||||||||||||
| Nevrorthidae | ||||||||||||
| Nakahara , 1958 |
The Nevrorthidae are a small family of netwings. Their larvae are predatory in streams. So far, 18 species from four genera are known.
features
The adults of the Nevrorthidae are typical netflies and are very similar to members of other families such as the Hemerobiidae and Sisyridae . With a wingspan of usually around 12 millimeters, they are relatively small insects, the largest species is Sinoneurorthus yunnanicus, with a body length of almost 7 millimeters and the fore wings 12.6 millimeters long. They can be distinguished by the characteristics of the wing veins. The cross veins in the front wing field, the costal field, are simple and not forked. The second longitudinal artery, the subcosta, does not run to the edge of the wing in the forewing, but has previously fused a little with the radius. Both pairs of wings have two transverse arteries between most of the longitudinal arteries and are therefore divided into numerous roughly rectangular cells.
The larvae are peculiar and unmistakable in their body shape. The typical suckers of the reticulated winged larvae are bent inwards. The head capsule is compact, the mouthparts stretched forward (prognath) and the head capsule is closed on the underside by a large sclerite called gula . The foremost trunk section, the prothorax , is narrow and greatly elongated in them, in many species narrower than the head and the rest of the trunk. The abdomen is also narrow and elongated. The larvae are aquatic. Their stigmas are closed. Gills or other respiratory organs are not developed.
Way of life
Nevorthidae larvae live in small rivers , in the stream zone, limnologically referred to as rhithral . These can range from small spring rivulets to strong streams with a water flow of several cubic meters per second. All populated waters have a gravel or stone bottom. The slender larvae live in the spaces between and on the underside of stones lying on top. The larvae are very mobile and can snake their way through the system of gaps in a flash. They are not very sensitive to the water temperature ( eurytherm ) and can also be found in streams on acidic rock, e.g. B. granite as well as in lime-rich waters. However, as far as is known, all species are extremely sensitive to water pollution and substances entering from the catchment area. They therefore live almost exclusively in streams, the catchment area of which is forested or occupied by bushes. They only inhabit water-bearing (perennial) bodies of water all year round and are absent from summer-dry streams. Since the Nevorthidae larvae suck their prey with their suction tongs, their food spectrum cannot be determined based on the intestinal contents. Therefore, almost nothing is known about the prey spectrum of the predatory larvae.
Nevorthidae larvae pupate within the water in a two-layer, irregularly round cocoon about 8 to 15 millimeters in diameter, which is attached to stones on the river bed. Both the delicate, net-like outer cocoon and the thickly felted inner cocoon are pure white. The long bristle pupa is colored white, only the mandibles are darkly sclerotized; presumably she bites open the doll's shell with them when they hatch. Pupation takes place in the Mediterranean region in spring, the pupae rest only for a few days. The main flight time of the adults is stated to be mid-May to mid-June, but some can be observed throughout the summer until autumn. Not much is known about the way of life of the adults, except that they are always found near water. They are occasionally observed on aphid excretions ( honeydew ).
distribution
Nevorthidae are known from three widely separated areas of distribution: the European Mediterranean, East Asia (China, Taiwan and Japan) and Southwest Australia. It is believed that this distribution pattern is only the relic of a previously coherent distribution.
Phylogeny and Systematics
The family name was originally spelled Neurorthidae; this goes back to a misspelling of the name of the type genus Nevrorthes (as Neurorthes ), which was only recognized in 1991. This genus was originally considered to belong to the spongy (family Sisyridae) or the diurnal (Hemerobiidae). After more exact morphological investigations, especially of the peculiar larvae, the family is isolated, so that it alone ( monotypically ) forms the suborder Nevorthiformia, one of the three suborders of the netwings. The family has many primordial ( plesiomorphic ) characteristics and is therefore considered the most basic group of netwings and the sister group of all the others taken together. It is controversial whether the aquatic way of life of the larvae, which they have in common with the spongy and mudflies within the reticulated wing flies , is an original or a derivative.
Phylogenomic investigations based on the comparison of homologous DNA sequences, however, have not yet been able to confirm the basal position of the Nevrorthidae. In an analysis by Winterton and colleagues, there was instead a sister group relationship to the semi- aquatic brook-like (family Osmylidae).
The family Nevrorthidae includes four genera
- Nevrorthus Costa, 1863 (Mediterranean region)
- Nipponeurorthus Nakahara, 1958 (East Asia: China, Taiwan, Japan)
- Austroneurorthus Nakahara, 1958 (Southwest Australia, always near the coast)
- Sinoneurorthus Liu, Aspöck & Aspöck, 2012 ( Yunnan , China)
Fossils
Fossil Nevrorthidae have rarely been found; some fossils also doubtful in their assignment to the family. The best known is the genus Rophalis with the species Rophalis relicta from the Eocene Baltic amber . Possibly the oldest evidence is a larva trapped in Burmese amber of the Lower Cretaceous ; but this is not guaranteed in its actual assignment.
swell
- Ulrike Aspöck, Elisabeth Haring, Horst Aspöck (2012): The phylogeny of the Neuropterida: long lasting and current controversies and challenges (Insecta: Endopterygota). Arthropod Systematics & Phylogeny 70 (2): 119-129.
- Ulrike Aspöck & Horst Aspöck (1999): Camel necks, mud flies, ant lions ... Who are they? (Insecta: Neuropterida: Raphidioptera, Megaloptera, Neuroptera). In: Stapfia. Volume 60, pp. 1-34, PDF on ZOBODAT
- David Grimaldi, Michael S. Engel, Paul Nascimbene (2002): Fossiliferous Cretaceous amber from Myanmar (Burma): its rediscovery, biotic diversity, and paleontological significance. American Museum Novitates no. 3361. 71 pp.
- David Grimaldi & Michael S. Engel: Evolution of the Insects. Cambridge University Press, 2005. ISBN 9780521821490 pp. 341/342.
- Xingyue Liu, Horst Aspöck, Ulrike Aspöck (2012): Sinoneurorthus yunnanicus n.gen. et n. sp. - a spectacular new species and genus of Nevrorthidae (Insecta: Neuroptera) from China, with phylogenetic and biogeographical implications, Aquatic Insects: International Journal of Freshwater Entomology, 34 (2): 131-141. doi : 10.1080 / 01650424.2012.718086
- Xingyue Liu, Horst Aspöck, Ulrike Aspöck (2014): New species of the genus Nipponeurorthus Nakahara, 1958 (Neuroptera: Nevrorthidae) from China. Zootaxa 3838 (2): 224-232.
- Hans Malicky (1984): A contribution to the autecology and bionomy of the aquatic reticulated winged genus Neurorthus (Insecta, Neuroptera, Neurorthidae). Archives for Hydrobiology 101 (1/2): 231-246.
- VJ Montserrat & O. Gavira (2014): A new European species of Nevrorthus in the Iberian Peninsula (Insecta, Neuropterida). Zootaxa 3796 (2): 349-360.
- Andre Nel & Edmund Jarzembowski (1997): New fossil Sisyridae and Nevrorthidae (Insecta: Neuroptera) from Eocene baltic amber and upper Miocene of France. European Journal of Entomology 94: 287-294.
- Ekkehard Wachmann, Christoph Saure: Netzflügler, mud and camel neck flies. Observation, way of life. Naturbuch Verlag, Augsburg 1997. ISBN 3-89440-222-9
- Shaun L. Winterton, Nate B. Hardy, Brian 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. doi : 10.1111 / j.1365-3113.2010.00521.x