Angle winged antlion

Periclystus circuiter

A large antlion species found in the eastern states of Australia. It uses camouflage as a defence and it's appearance at rest is that of old webbing with bird droppings or detritus caught in it. It's a clumsy flier fluttering rarely more than a couple of metres above ground.
Angular-wing Antlion (Periclystus circuiter) This fantastic antlion looked like many other things ( a piece of moulted reptilian skin, an abandoned cobweb with trapped insects and even dried-up bird dropping.) as it clung to a dried twig. The head, thorax and abdomen were dark with the last abdominal segments showing some yellow. Antennae were short with slightly curved tips. The spectacular wings looked like lace with dark patterns of black and brown. When in flight, the frames of the wings were hardly visible, showing flashes of dark spatters. Body length (including long fore-wings and antennae) would have been about 50 mm. Spotted in a nature reserve. An amazing find for me ! Angle winged antlion,Australia,Geotagged,Periclystus circuiter,Summer

Appearance

Body length is about 40mm = length overall is about 65mm.

Naming

Synonyms:
Myrmeleon circuiter Walker, 1853
Periclystus callipeplus Gerstaecker, 1888

Distribution

Eastern states of Australia (not Tasmania)

Status

Uncommon

Defense

It has such confidence in it's camouflage will remain still even if picked up.

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_lacewings/AngularWingAntlion.htm
http://eol.org/pages/2865404/names?all=1
http://bie.ala.org.au/species/Periclystus+circuiter#
Taxonomy
KingdomAnimalia
DivisionArthropoda
ClassInsecta
OrderNeuroptera
FamilyMyrmeleontidae
GenusPericlystus
SpeciesPericlystus circuiter
Photographed in
Australia