Family GOMPHIDAE

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Family GOMPHIDAE

Clubtails, Tigers

Compiler and date details

W.W.K. Houston, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra, ACT, Australia J.A.L. Watson, CSIRO Entomology, Canberra, ACT, Australia Updated (1999) by A.A. Calder, CSIRO Entomology, Canberra, ACT, Australia

Introduction

The Gomphidae is a large, cosmopolitan family of some 90 genera and 900 species (Davies 1981; Bridges 1994). The gomphids are very homogeneous in appearance and attempts at their subfamilial classification have been unsatisfactory (cf. Watson & O'Farrell 1985). Fraser (1951, 1953, 1960) revised the Australian fauna, but many problems remained, due partly to the unsatisfactory subfamilial classification. Watson (1991) revised the Australian gomphids, along the lines foreshadowed in Watson & O'Farrell (1985). In this revision, two subfamilies were recognized, the Ictinogomphinae (=Lindeniinae) and the Gomphinae. The former included only the three species of Ictinogomphus now included in a separate family Lindeniidae. The Gomphinae are more numerous: seven species of Hemigomphus; six of Antipodogomphus; five subgenera of Austrogomphus (including Austroepigomphus) with 21 species; Armagomphus armiger; and Odontogomphus, with a north Queensland species.

The Australian Gomphinae show strong Gondwanan affinities (Watson & O'Farrell, 1985). Hawking & Theischinger (1999) give a key to the larvae of nine known New South Wales species and note that it is not possible to confidently identify Hemigomphus larvae to species.

Theischinger et al.(2021) places all species previously within Lindeniidae into Gomphidae, effectively synonymizing the two.

Diagnosis

Adult: eyes widely separated; primary antenodals strongly differentiated, secondary antenodals not necessarily aligned; median space free; triangular spaces differing moderately in shape in fore- and hindwing, that of hindwing slightly elongate along wing axis; anal loop, if present, poorly defined, rudimentary; base of hindwing usually angulated in male, often strongly so; auricles usually well developed; ovipositor reduced to vulvar scale, sometimes elongate.

Larva: labium flat, usually short, lacking setae, median lobe not cleft, palps narrow; antennae 4-segmented; pro- and mesotarsus with 2 segments only; pro- and mesotibia often with distal spur or digging hook; wing pads parallel.