Myrmeleontiformia is an insect

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

in the order

Neuroptera The insect order (biology), order Neuroptera, or net-winged insects, includes the lacewings, mantidflies, antlions, and their relatives. The order consists of some 6,000 species. Neuroptera is grouped together with the Megaloptera (alderflies, f ...

, and which was historically treated as a suborder. The

phylogeny A phylogenetic tree or phylogeny is a graphical representation which shows the evolutionary history between a set of species or Taxon, taxa during a specific time.Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, M ...

of the Neuroptera has been explored using

mitochondrial DNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA and mDNA) is the DNA located in the mitochondrion, mitochondria organelles in a eukaryotic cell that converts chemical energy from food into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is a small portion of the D ...

sequences, and while issues remain for the order as a whole, such as " Hemerobiiformia" being

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

, Myrmeleontiformia is generally agreed to be

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

, with one study giving the following

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ...

Superfamilies and families

Clade Myrmeleontiformia * Superfamily

Myrmeleontoidea Myrmeleontoidea is a neuropteran superfamily in the clade Myrmeleontiformia. The following families are included: Superfamily Myrmeleontoidea (syn Nemopteroidea) * Family Ascalaphidae: owlflies (included in Myrmeleontidae in some classifications ...

(syn Nemopteroidea) ** Family

Ascalaphidae Ascalaphidae is a family of insects in the order Neuroptera, commonly called owlflies; there are some 450 extant species. They are fast-flying crepuscular or Diurnality, diurnal predators of other flying insects, and have large bulging eyes and ...

: owlflies (possibly in Myrmeleontoidea) ** Family †

Babinskaiidae Babinskaiidae is an extinct family of neuropterans known from the Cretaceous period of South America and Asia. They are part of the superfamily Myrmeleontoidea. Their distinguishing characters include: "long Insect morphology#Antennae, filiform a ...

** Family

Myrmeleontidae The antlions are a group of about 2,000 species of insect in the neuropteran family (biology), family Myrmeleontidae. They are known for the predation, predatory habits of their larvae, which mostly dig pits to trap passing ants or other prey. ...

: antlions (includes Palaeoleontidae) ** Family Nemopteridae: spoonwings etc (formerly in Myrmeleontoidea) ** Family

Nymphidae Nymphidae, sometimes called split-footed lacewings, are a family (biology), family of Pterygota, winged insects of the order (biology), order Neuroptera. There are 35 extant species native to Australia and New Guinea. Nymphidae stand somewhat ap ...

: split-footed lacewings (includes Myiodactylidae) ** Family † Rafaelianidae * Superfamily Psychopsoidea ** Family † Aetheogrammatidae ** Family †

Kalligrammatidae Kalligrammatidae, sometimes known as kalligrammatids or kalligrammatid lacewings, is a family of extinct insects in the order Neuroptera (lacewings) that contains twenty genera and a number of species. The family lived from the Middle Jurassic t ...

** Family † Osmylopsychopidae ( syn †Brongniartiellidae) ** Family † Panfiloviidae (syn † Grammosmylidae) ** Family † Prohemerobiidae ** Family Psychopsidae: silky lacewings

References

External links

* {{Neuroptera-stub