Nemoleontini Banks, 1911

Badano, Davide & Pantaleoni, Roberto Antonio, 2014, The larvae of European Myrmeleontidae (Neuroptera), Zootaxa 3762 (1), pp. 1-71 : 18

Tribe Nemoleontini Banks, 1911

Diagnosis of 3 rd instar larva. Head capsule with prominent ocular tubercles; mandibles usually equipped with three parallel teeth; apical tooth at least as long as the median tooth, often longer; labial palpi ordinarily fourarticulated, segments 2–4 longer than the basal width of the mandible. Mesothoracic spiracles raised on tubercle. Thoracic setiferous processes pedunculated; in some genera also the abdomen provided with peduncolated setiferous processes. Odontoid processes on the VIII abdominal sternite present or absent according to the genus; IX abdominal sternite wider than long, bearing rastra equipped with digging setae.

Biological notes. The larvae are ambush hunters able to move both forward and backward.

Comments. This widespread tribe is the largest and most diverse of the whole family Myrmeleontidae , though poorly defined and lacking precise apomorphic characters ( Stange 2004). The larvae of only a handful of genera are exhaustively described and the diagnostic characters are often not well defined, due to the considerable variation observed within the tribe. In particular, the larvae of some extra-Palaearctic genera considerably differ in the development of abdominal setiferous processes and, in some cases, in the reduction in the number of mandibular teeth and labial palpomeres (Miller & Stange 1985; Stange 2004).