Taxonomic revision and first phylogeny of Climacia McLachlan, 1869 (Neuroptera: Sisyridae), with new species and identification key

The extant fauna of Neuroptera (Insecta) from Brazil: diversity, distribution and history

“…Catherine Tauber from the United States, who participated in the description of eight Chrysopidae species, Ulrike Aspöck from Europe, with two Berothidae species, and Alice Assmar, the first Brazilian woman to describe a species of Neuroptera, with two Sisyridae species. The latter two female authors only entered this list in early 2022 Assmar et al, 2022), spotlighting an extensive gender gap that needs to be addressed in future research endeavors.…”

“…The next family, Sisyridae, commonly named the spongillaflies, is represented by 20 species (25% endemic), divided into two genera that occur throughout the New World, Climacia MaLachlan and Sisyra Burmeister. Sisyrids represent the only truly aquatic neuropterans in Brazil, with the larvae living in association with sponges and bryozoans (Assmar et al, 2022). The group is currently under taxonomic revision and the Brazilian species of spongillaflies can be identified by the keys presented in Assmar and Salles (2017) and Assmar et al (2022).…”

“…Sisyrids represent the only truly aquatic neuropterans in Brazil, with the larvae living in association with sponges and bryozoans (Assmar et al, 2022). The group is currently under taxonomic revision and the Brazilian species of spongillaflies can be identified by the keys presented in Assmar and Salles (2017) and Assmar et al (2022).…”

“…As noted in the previous section, many genera classified in the two most diverse families in Brazil, Myrmeleontidae and Chrysopidae, are almost impossible to identify to species, because modern taxonomic treatments are lacking and keys to these groups are unavailable. On the other hand, studies focusing on less diverse neuropteran families should not be avoided, as demonstrated by several recent works that presented some important new records for these families in Brazil, including the description of many new taxa (Machado and Rafael, 2010a;Machado and Krolow, 2016;Martins & Amorim, 2016;Martins et al, 2019;Lara and Perioto, 2021;Assmar et al, 2022;.…”

Prof. Dr. Claudio Gilberto Froehlich, a naturalistic legacy overcoming the biodiversity knowledge shortfalls

“…This effort resulted in 63 described species of caddisflies (including eight presented in the special issue), eight mayflies, four stoneflies, and four neuropteran species (spongillaflies and antlions). In addition, other biodiversity deficits were also addressed, such as Darwinian (e.g., Calor et al, 2016;Campos et al, 2019;Assmar et al, 2022;Duarte et al, 2022;Tavares et al, 2023a), Raunkiaeran and Eltonian shortfalls (e.g., Calderón et al, 2019;Rezende et al, 2019;Boyero et al, 2021). In the special issue, five new caddisfly species are presented in honor of CGF, the patron of LEAq.…”