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Project Noah Nature School
Family Keroplatidae
Spotted 5M in un-named cave near Mid Cave, Baggao, Cagayan. Photo #1 is a crop of photo #2 shows some of the flying insects caught.
Probably similar to the Australian glowworm that make sticky hanging snares to catch food during its larval stage. "Predaceous species kill their prey with an acid fluid (mostly oxalic acid) secreted by labial glands and deposited on the droplets of their webs."
ID to Family Keroplatidae suggested by Socrates Letana (Phil. Biodiversity Net). http://pbs.bishopmuseum.org/pdf/BE13-ker... Photos by Jerry Rendon.
EOL has this image of a keroplatid larva: http://content63.eol.org/content/2010/11...
Catalog of the Keroplatidae of the World (Neal L. Evenhuis), http://pbs.bishopmuseum.org/pdf/BE13-ker..., lists 86 genera and 952 species of which the following have distribution in the Philippines: Euceroplatus bistylus, Platyura minuta, Platyura lunifrons, Macrocera quinquemaculata.
Only Euceroplatus bistylus has the type locality as the Philippines...
Ran across a photo of similar snares in Google images: http://www.bensley1.freeserve.co.uk/hrWE...
ID suggested to keroplatid family (fungus gnat) by Socrates Letana (Phil. Biodiversity net). Might be included in Family Mycetophilidae...
Spotted on Mar 22, 2012
Submitted on Apr 14, 2012
