& Megaloptera Larvae

Acknowledgments

The following people must be thanked for their contributions to this key.  Ben Gunn (CSIRO Entomology), for his contribution of taxa and character images. Mick Smith (W.A. Department of Conservation & Land Management) and Gunther Theischinger (NSW Environmental Protection Authority), for the loan of many of the specimens that were used for photography.

General Information

These two closely related orders are sometimes placed as one.  We follow The Insects of Australia by keeping the orders separate but for convenience present them in a single key.

Neuroptera comprises about 18 families worldwide (14 in Australia) but the aquatic component is restricted to three families within the superfamily Osmyloidea.  Osmylidae is a diverse group of medium to large lacewings.  Aquatic or semiaquatic species predominate in several subfamilies.  The other two families, Sisyridae (spongeflies) and Neurorthidae, are of smaller insects and always associated with water.

Megaloptera comprises just two families worldwide.  All larvae are aquatic, pupation takes place in the soil beside streams, and the adult insects are rarely found far from their breeding sites.  Both of the megalopteran families, Sialidae and Corydalidae, are recorded from eastern Australia and one species of Corydalidae from the south-west.

The remaining taxon in this key is that of the beetle family Gyrinidae (order Coleoptera).  It is included here because it is rather easy to confuse gyrinid larvae for megalopteran Corydalidae.