The wasp mantisfly, Climaciella brunnea, is not a wasp, a mantis, or a fly. It is instead a type of spider-eating lacewing that keeps itself safe by looking like it has a painful sting, which it does not.
Evolution continues to be marvelous. #Entomology #Mantispidae #Insects
I love #MantisFlies (#Neuropera, #Mantispidae). Here's a handheld shot of #Spaminta minjerribae here in #Canberra last night.
This is one of the surprisingly large number of groups where #taxonomists seem to have given up trying to think of new genus names and just generate anagrams of older names. Mantispa -> Spaminta. In another neuropteran group, the genus name Ascalaphus has simply been reversed to give Suhpalacsa, which I can never type.
Here's the #iNaturalist record - the ML-based image recognition had nothing useful to say, suggesting #Mantispidae and other unrelated taxa.
https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/194568810
or
It was clearly #Beetle Night here in #Canberra last night. Here's the view from my Automated #Moth Trap just after midnight. There were enormous numbers of the small scarab Phyllotocus macleayi. This shot also includes two, maybe three, different #mantisfly species.
#AMT #Coleoptera #Scarabaeidae #Neuroptera #Mantispidae #Lepidoptera #entomology
two mantispids/mantisflies: Zeugomantispa minuta (the green one) and probably Leptomantispa pulchella.
despite their appearance, mantispids are not closely related to mantises. Mantispidae is a family within the order Neuroptera (along with lacewings, antlions, owlflies, spoonwings, spongillaflies, and a few handfuls of other weird guys).
as juveniles, they have a specialized diet: they eat spider eggs. this specialization is reflected in their life history, and most mantispids are hypermetamorphic (with three major life stages: a thin&leggy form used to seek and cling to a spider; a short-legged, grub-like, eating form once the animal is safely within a spider's eggsac; and finally the mantis/lacewing chimera seen here). adults have a less picky diet, so those raptorial forelimbs do not go to waste.
#neuroptera #mantispidae #insects #entomology #bugstodon #virginia
Last of my You Yangs shots, here's a mantisfly! Those arms share the same purpose as a praying mantis', but these insects are more closely related to lacewing!
#WildOz #OzInverts #MacroPhotography #YouYangs #Australia #Insect #Nature #Arthropod #Mantisfly #Mantidfly #Mantispidae
Climaciella brunnea, the wasp mantisfly and international supermodel.
Alex Wild
Donald Hobern
marshy