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Owlfly -Libelloides macaronius
Seen ina prairy near Zadar, Croatia (June, 2016).
The body is black and quite hairy. The eyes are large and bulging, the antennae are long and clubbed. The wings do not have scales and are partly transparent, bright yellow in the first third, dark brown on the external side. The wings are held spread at rest. The adults are diurnal predators of other flying insects.
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libelloides_macaronius
http://eol.org/pages/4129504/overview
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/19518291
The neuropteran owlfly Libelloides (=Ascalaphus) macaronius (Insecta: Plannipenia) was described in 1763 by the correspondant of Carolus Linnaeus, Johannes Antonius Scopoli, while he was a physician in Slovenian mining town Idria.
Similar species: Net-winged Insects
By Patomarazul
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Uploaded Jul 29, 2016. Captured Jun 1, 2016 13:32 in Put Nina, 23000, Zadar, Croatia.
comments (10)
"This beautiful insect is an owlfly (Libelloides macaronius). It is an extraordinary, aerial predator that lives in the warm meadows of southeastern Europe where it preys upon flying insects. An owlfly's success as a hunter depends on its famous visual sense, which is made unique by its large, bipartite compound eyes with superposition optics. What does that mean? Basically, it means that their eyes are divided into two parts and that light enters their eyes through many facets, where it combines to form one image. This type of high-contrast vision is common in nocturnal invertebrates, but is unusual in diurnal insects, such as owlflies. Another remarkable feature of their sensitive eyes is that the front part of their eyes is exclusively sensitive to UV light. This is beneficial because UV light reduces background clutter so that the sky is uniformly illuminated, the clouds are barely visible, and the sun's glow is very limited. These conditions are optimal for detecting small insect prey as highly contrasting spots against both clear and cloudy skies, which is quite a unique advantage for a hunting owfly! {Spotted in Croatia by JungleDragon moderator, Patomarazul} #JungleDragon" Posted 7 years ago
I love these owlflies! I hope I can see more whenever I head back to the Balkans. Posted 7 years ago