快猫短视频

I came across this lovely creature (see photo) on a wild hillside on the west coast of Tuscany, Italy, one April, at about 100 metres above sea level. It flew like a butterfly, dancing around in pairs with others like it, and was about 4 centimetres across, but it doesn鈥檛 seem like any butterfly I鈥檝e seen, nor is it in any of my insect books. It is very beautiful, what is it?

鈥� This insect is the Libelloides coccajus, related to lacewings and antlions. I have seen them in Burgundy in France and in the Pyrenees mountains, and have observed their butterfly-like qualities.

Edmund Scott

鈥� These insects go by the picturesque name of owlflies because of their bulging eyes. They are a kind of lacewing of the order Neuroptera, and belong to the family Ascalaphidae, which takes its name from , the custodian of the orchard in Hades, who was transformed by an angry Demeter into an owl. There are about 15 known species in Europe, and this appears to be Libelloides coccajus 鈥� the sulphur owlfly. The prominent claspers at the tip of the abdomen indicate that it is a male.

Owlflies are closely related to antlions of the family Myrmeleontidae. They are superficially similar, but whereas antlions are principally nocturnal, owlflies are active in the sunshine, flying straight and level a couple of metres above the ground where they hawk for small insects in the manner of dragonflies. The Latin word 鈥�libella鈥� means 鈥渓evel鈥�, and is the origin of the French word for dragonfly, une libellule. From this seems to come the genus name Libelloides. Just like the larvae of antlions, owlfly larvae are predators, feeding on other insects found in soil detritus and under stones.

Terence Hollingworth, Blagnac, France