Sialinae have a body length of less than 25 mm (1 inch), long filamentous antennae, and four large dark wings of which the anterior pair is slightly longer than the posterior. They lack ocelli and their fourth tarsal segment is dilated and deeply bilobed. Dead alderfly larvae are used as bait in fishing.[3]
Life cycle
The females lay a vast number of eggs on grass stems near water. When the larvae are born they drop into the water or the ground nearby it and make their way into their new aquatic biome. The larvae are aquatic, active, armed with strong sharp mandibles, and breathe by means of seven pairs of abdominal branchial filaments. When full sized, which takes between one and two years, they leave the water and spend a quiescent pupal stage on the land before metamorphosis into the sexually mature insect. Adult alderflies stay near to the water in which they had lived when they were younger. Once in their adult stage, they tend to live only 2 to 3 weeks, which they spend mainly in reproducing.
Classification
In addition to the nine living genera,[2] there are several genera of fossil alderflies.[4]
Species Sialis vanderweelei U. Aspöck & H. Aspöck, 1983
Species Sialis velata Ross, 1937
Species Sialis versicoloris X.-y. Liu & D. Yang, 2006
Species Sialis yamatoensis Hayashi & Suda, 1995
Species Sialis zhiltzovae Vshivkova, 1985
Genus Stenosialis Tillyard, (1919)
Species Stenosialis australiensis Tillyard, (1919)
Species Stenosialis hollowayi Theischinger, 1983
Sialis lutaria is the commonest alderfly in the United Kingdom[5] and across much of Europe.
References
^Engel, M.S.; Grimaldi D.A. (2007). "The neuropterid fauna of Dominican and Mexican amber (Neuropterida, Megaloptera, Neuroptera)". American Museum Novitates (3587): 1–58. doi:10.1206/0003-0082(2007)3587[1:TNFODA]2.0.CO;2. hdl:2246/5880.
^ a bMartins, Caleb C.; Ardila-Camacho, Adrian; Rivera-Gasperín, Sara Lariza; Oswald, John D.; Liu, Xingyue; Contreras-Ramos, Atilano (2022-04-08). "A world checklist of extant and extinct species of Megaloptera (Insecta: Neuropterida)". European Journal of Taxonomy. 812: 1–93. doi:10.5852/ejt.2022.812.1727. ISSN 2118-9773.
^fly fishing entomology alderfy entry
^Liu, Xingyue; Hayashi, Fumio; Yang, Ding (2014-02-07). "Phylogeny of the family Sialidae (Insecta: Megaloptera) inferred from morphological data, with implications for generic classification and historical biogeography". Cladistics. 31 (1): 18–49. doi:10.1111/cla.12071. ISSN 0748-3007.
^Arkive (2006): Alderfly - Sialis lutaria. Retrieved 28 June 2006.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sialidae.
Look up alderfly in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.