Family APTEROPANORPIDAE
Compiler and date details
K.J. Lambkin, Queensland Museum, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia (1996) Updated (1998) by S. Shattuck, CSIRO Entomology, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Introduction
The family Apteropanorpidae, which includes only Apteropanorpa tasmanica Carpenter, is known only from high elevations in Tasmania. Adults are small (body length around 6 mm) and apterous, and have been collected on snow or on low shrubs in May and September.
Riek (1970) suggested that an eruciform larva described by Evans (1942) from moss on Mount Wellington is possibly that of A. tasmanica; Pilgrim (1972) and Byers (1991) considered that it is probably this species. The life history is otherwise unknown.
General References
Byers, G.W. 1991. Mecoptera. pp. 696-704 in CSIRO (ed.). The Insects of Australia. A textbook for students and research workers. Melbourne : Melbourne University Press Vol. 2 pp. 543-1137
Carpenter, F.M. 1941. A new genus of Mecoptera from Tasmania. Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 1940: 51-53
Evans, J.W. 1942. A mecopterous larva from Tasmania and notes on the morphology of the insect head. Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 1941: 31-35
Pilgrim, R.L.C. 1972. The aquatic larva and the pupa of Choristella philpotti Tillyard, 1917 (Mecoptera: Nannochoristidae). Pacific Insects 14: 151-168
Riek, E.F. 1970. Mecoptera. pp. 636-646 in CSIRO (ed.). The Insects of Australia. A textbook for students and research workers. Carlton : Melbourne University Press 1029 pp.