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31 Orders of Insects: Rhaphidioptera

photo of a snake-fly (Raphidioptera)
A snake-fly (Raphidioptera) [Photo: Beentree, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons].

 

Cladogram with Raphidioptera highlighted
Cladogram highlighting Raphidioptera. Adapted from Gullan, PJ & Cranston PS (2014). The insects: an outline of entomology (5th ed.). Wiley Blackwell.

Order Raphidioptera: Snakeflies

Raphidioptera

  • common name = snakeflies
  • from the Greek: ‘raphis’ for needle, ‘pteron’ for wing; a reference to them looking like flying needles
  • found in temperate regions worldwide, but not in Australia or southern hemisphere; about 260 spp.; a relict group, more common in the Cretaceous
  • live in leaf litter, under bark, often in coniferous forest; diurnal
  • predators as adults and larvae (holometabolous)

Characteristics of Raphidioptera

Adults

  • Medium size (15-30mm),
  • head long and flattened, mobile; prognathous, mandibulate mouthparts
  • Compound eyes large and separated; many without ocelli; antennae filiform, long, & multi-segmented
  • Prothorax much longer than meso- and metathorax
  • Fore wings rather longer than otherwise similar hind wings; fore wings have a pterostigma; numerous cross-veins near leading edge, branching venation
  • females have a long ovipositor to deposit eggs under bark; no cerci

Immatures

  • Immature stages (larvae) are terrestrial, large heads, first segment sclerotised, projecting mandibles
  • pupa is mobile

 

Photo of Raphidioptera larva
Raphidioptera larva [Photo: Nikita Kluge, CC0, Wikimedia Commons].

Keen to learn more?

Check out Insect Spotlight video on snakeflies (YouTube, 6m 36s)!

Read more about fossil snakeflies.

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