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Mantispidae fam.
3-4 cm. Night active. Ther are around 400 species worldwide.
Drawn to a ligth at a cottage in the forest.
Among the Neuroptera (which includes lacewings and owlflies), mantidflies are apparently most closely related to the Dilaridae (pleasing lacewings) and the thorny (Rhachiberothidae) and beaded lacewings (Berothidae)
Spotted on Feb 28, 2014
Submitted on Mar 3, 2014
5 Comments
Lauren, Glad you liked this small insect. I have only seen this type of star shaped reflection from antlion flies before. It is a result of using the flash, but perhaps I should collect one and look at it in daylight...
You also managed to give me an id-hinch there :) Thank you very much for that :)
Beautiful little Mantispid! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantispidae...).
Love the eyes…was that the real coloring or a reflection from the flash?
I came across something similar in an article about spider predation - thread-legged assassin bugs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emesinae
Thank you Jopy! Cant wait to find out what this is! What is mimicing what :) And why...
Very interesting, Tiz :)