The family Corydalidae contains the megalopterous insects known as dobsonflies and fishflies. Making up about three dozen genera,See references in Haaramo (2008) they occur primarily throughout North America, both temperate and tropical, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Africa (particularly South Africa) and Asia.
They are sizeable Megaloptera, with a body usually larger than 25 mm (1 inch). They often have long filamentous antennae, though in male fishflies they are characteristically feathered. Ocelli are present; the fourth tarsal segment is cylinder-shaped. The four large wings are translucent, smoky grey, or mixed, and the anterior pair is slightly longer than the posterior one. Their aquatic larvae are used as fish bait and are called hellgrammites. The larvae are aquatic, active, armed with strong sharp mandibles, and breathe by means of abdominal branchial filaments. When full sized — which can take several years — they leave the water and spend a quiescent pupal stage on the land, in chambers dug under stones or logs, before metamorphosis into the sexually mature insect.
Distribution The eastern dobsonfly, Corydalus cornutus, is the most well-known North American species among the dobsonflies. These genera have distinctive elongated mandibles in males and form the subfamily Corydalinae. The genera in which the males have normal mandibles, called fishflies, form the subfamily Chauliodinae. The summer fishfly, Chauliodes pectinicornis, is perhaps the best-known of these in North America; its immense mating swarms in the Upper Mississippi River region fill the air on a few summer nights each year much like mayflies in certain regions of Europe, leaving millions of carcasses to be cleaned up the next day.
Taxonomy The family is divided into two subfamilies, the Corydalinae and the Chauliodinae. Classification and identification is based on external morphology and at the species level using male genitalia. These 31 genera belong to the family Corydalidae as of 2022:
Subfamily Corydalinae Leach in Brewster, 1815 Genus Acanthacorydalis van der Weele, 1907 Genus Chloronia Banks, 1908 Genus Chloroniella Esben-Petersen, 1924 Genus †Corydalites Scudder, 1878 Genus Corydalus Latreille, 1802 Genus Neoneuromus van der Weele, 1909 Genus Nevromus Rambur, 1842 Genus Platyneuromus van der Weele, 1909 Genus Protohermes van der Weele, 1907
Subfamily Chauliodinae Newman, 1853 Genus Anachauliodes Kimmins, 1954 Genus Apochauliodes Theischinger, 1983 Genus Archichauliodes van der Weele, 1909 Genus Chauliodes Latreille, 1796 Genus †Cretochaulus Ponomarenko, 1976 Genus Ctenochauliodes van der Weele, 1909 Genus Dysmicohermes Munroe, 1953 Genus †Eochauliodes Liu et al., 2012 Genus †Jurochauliodes Wang & Zhang, 2010 Genus Madachauliodes Paulian, 1951 Genus Neochauliodes van der Weele, 1909 Genus Neohermes Banks, 1908 Genus Nigronia Banks, 1908 Genus Nothochauliodes Flint, 1983 Genus Orohermes Evans, 1984 Genus Parachauliodes van der Weele, 1909 Genus Platychauliodes Esben-Petersen, 1924 Genus Protochauliodes van der Weele, 1909 Genus Puri Cardoso-Costa et al., 2013 Genus Taeniochauliodes Esben-Petersen, 1924
Subfamily Incertae sedis Genus †Cratocorydalopsis Jepson & Heads, 2016 Genus †Lithocorydalus Jepson & Heads, 2016
References
External links
Informative Corydalidae video