I 



>:3CEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Issued 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



C 105 Washington: 1956 No. 3360 



^E SPONGILLA-FLIES, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO 

 THOSE OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE 

 (SISYRIDAE, NEUROPTERA) 



By Sophy I. Parfin* and Ashley B. GuRNEYf 



Introduction 



?he spongilla-fly adults are small, dull-colored Neuroptera, similar 

 [the brown lace-wings (Hemerobiidae) in appearance (pi. 3, fig. 4). 

 ^3 larvae are regarded as parasitic on fresh-water sponges. They 

 jloubtedly serve as food for fish and higher aquatic animals and 

 ibably have been frequently mistaken for certain crustaceans such 

 iCyclops, which they strongly resemble in manner of swimming. 

 ^3y are of particular interest phylogenetically because they are the 

 ly truly aquatic larvae at present laiown among the Nem'optera, 

 Esu strictu.^ 



^he Sisyridae are widely distributed and have been taken in North 

 Lierica (United States, southern Canada, Alaska), Central America 

 litish Honduras, Honduras, Panama), South America (Brazil, 

 Uish Guiana, Chile, Peru, Surinam, Venezuela), the West Indies 

 [iba), Europe (Great Britain to Russia, Scandinavia to Spain), 

 dca (Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Natal, South Africa, and Madagas- 

 0, Asia (China, India, Japan), the Philippine Islands, and Australia. 

 'dsc in the Western Hemisphere have never previously had a com- 

 ihensive treatment including genitalic studies. There also has 

 < er been a publication in the English language treating the world 

 (era. At the present time, the Sisyridae of the Western Hemisphere 



Intotnologist, U. S. National MuBeutn. 

 ' ntomologist, Entomology Research Branch, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



'he larvae of the Osmylidae, the closest larval relatives of the spoDgilla-flies, are only semiaquatic, 

 i)ut tracheal gills, and occur in wet places such as the margins of streams, where they may be foimd 

 I mp moss feeding on dipterous larvae. The Osmylidae have been taken in South America, Europe, 

 5 Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. 



359326—56 1' 421 



