Jan 8, 2018
#1289 - Austrocroce sp. - Thread-winged Lacewing
The first ID for 2018, a few seconds after midnight (how did YOU spend the countdown?).
Photo by Brooke Janitz, near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.
Thread-winged Lacewings are in the same family as the Spoon-winged Lacewings - the Nemopteridae - but instead of have elaborate flattened blades on their hindwings, they have these slender filaments instead. I’m not sure what benefit they derive by evolving in this direction - perhaps female Austrocroce just decided that spoonwings were going out of fashion, and decided they preferred their mates more minimalist. Of course, that assumes that they didn’t start off like this and that Austrocroce is stubbornly retaining the traditional look.
