Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Owlfly

Ascalaphidae

Description:

Owlflies are dragonfly-like insects with large bulging eyes and long knobbed antennae. They are neuropterans in the family Ascalaphidae; they are only distantly related to the true flies, and even more distant from the dragonflies and damselflies. They are diurnal or crepuscular predators of other flying insects, and are typically 5 cm (2.0 in) long. Owlflies are readily distinguished from dragonflies because the latter have short bristle-like antennae. The closely related antlions (family Myrmeleontidae) have short, clubbed antennae, smaller eyes, and very different wing venation.The sole living member of the subfamily Albardiinae, the Brazilian Albardia furcata, also has short, clubbed antennae, but its typical reticulate ascalaphid wing venation demonstrates its actual relationships.

Species ID Suggestions



Sign in to suggest organism ID

No Comments

dotun55
Spotted by
dotun55

Lagos, Nigeria

Spotted on Feb 1, 2013
Submitted on Mar 30, 2013

Related Spottings

Owlfly Owlfly (Neuroptera: Ascalaphidae) Owlfly Owlfly

Nearby Spottings

Black-kneed Duskhawker Planthopper Hermit crab Brown recluse spider

Reference

Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team