Mystery Peruvian Beetle(Bug?) and a Neuropteran

It has been a while since I posted - yeah, been busy with medical school and all that.  Still keeping my eye out for new insects, and since we are in the middle of moving to a new apartment, we are going to go through our collection and tidy it up a bit.  Several new additions and insects that need to be keyed, but here are the more interesting of the lot.

I'm essentially positive this fellow is a Neuropteran, but whether he is a giant lacewing or an antlion is yet to be decided.  We already packed our Borror and Delong key to insects of North America, so it will have to wait until after the move to be classified.  Here is the picture as a teaser - if anyone wants to venture a guess or identify it for us in the meantime, you are more than welcome!

On another note, this one is out of our range for keying - it was brought back by a friend who visited the Peruvian rainforest.  I was thrown off by the fact that the scutellum (seen in order Hemiptera, usually a small plate directly beneath the thorax) is maximally enlarged and both sets of wings are hidden beneath it.  This is characteristic of its family - named Scutelleridae because of it's elongated scutellum - to the point where it starts to closely resemble a beetle (Coleoptera).

Hemiptera; Pentatomomorpha; Pentatomoidea; Scutelleridae; Pachycoris sp.

Common Name: (Carnival or Clown?) Shield Bug 

These were some of the better pictures - somehow the surface of the insect became really sticky, not sure exactly what happened there - it also became more luminous.  Upon looking up other members of Scutelleridae in North America, I must say this one from Peru is far larger and has more impressive colorations.  I'm glad it will be our first representative of this family.  There are 37 species in North America, and 450 species worldwide - many in South America and known as jewel or shield bugs.

Myrmeleontidae

The order Neuroptera is less well-known than the beetles, butterflies and moths, plant bugs, and flies. It contains soft-bodied insects with four membranous wings that have many crossveins and extra branches of the longitudinal veins. The name comes from the Greek word "neuron," meaning sinew, and "ptera" meaning wings. Hence, they are also known as the nerve-wing or net-wing order. The most common Neuropteran is the lacewing (suborder Planipennia, family Chrysopidae), which eats aphids and is usually a pretty green with delicate translucent wings. A previous entry described snakeflies (order Neuroptera, suborder Raphidioptera). I now bring you the antlion.

Neuroptera; Planipennia; Myrmeleontoidea; Myrmeleontidae; Dendroleon obsoletus
Common Name: Spotted Winged Antlion

The antlion begins its life as a rather scary looking larvae that digs a cone-like pit in the ground and waits for ants to fall into its waiting jaws. The larvae are also called "Doodlebugs" and have sicklelike jaws. Eventually, it pupates into a four-winged adult. The above-pictured antlion was found in Virginia, and is most common on the east coast of the United States. Antlions are the largest family of the order Neuroptera, and other species are common throughout the country. They differ from damselflies in that they are softer-bodied, have relatively long, clubbed antennae (which fell off on the above-pictured specimen), and very different wing venation. They are rather feeble fliers, and are attracted to lights. There are 13 genera containing 92 species.

Raphidiidae

This is a specimen of the (sub)order Raphidioptera, family Raphidiidae. There is some debate as to whether snake flies should be separated into their own order or remain a suborder. There are 17 species of the genus Agulla and 2 of Alena, which are distributed through western North America from Texas and California up to Alberta, Canada. They are distinguishable most easily from the other family in Raphidioptera by having an ocellus, while the family Inocellidae does not have ocelli. Ocelli are light-sensitive pseudo-eyes commonly found on insect foreheads which help them detect movement. Another difference between Inocellidae and Raphidiidae is that inocellids are larger than raphidiids, and may have longer, thicker antennae.

(Neuroptera); Raphidioptera; Raphiidae; Agulla
Common Name: Snake Fly

This snake fly was found in La Verne, CA. Snake flies are able to raise their heads above their bodies in a snake-like, earning them their name. The adults are predaceous, but only catch small, weak prey. The female has a long ovipositor and lays her eggs in clusters in crevicies in bark, and hte larvae are usually under bark. Larvae are also predaceous, feeding on aphids and caterpillars. Here are some live pictures taken on May 6 of a second specimen found in Contra Costa County, CA.