Family LEPIDOPSOCIDAE

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Introduction

The family Lepidopsocidae comprises 16 genera and about 190 species, among which ten genera and 30 species have been recorded for the Australian fauna, including Christmas Island. Lepidopsocids are essentially tropical with only a few species in more temperate climates. A few species that are found in stored products are more widespread. Other species occur in a variety of habitats, suggesting that as a whole, the family is not specially adapted to any particular environment.

This is one of two families of Psocoptera in which most species are scaly (the other being the Amphientomidae). In life they resemble small microlepidoptera. The antennae may have as many as fifty segments, which are not secondarily 'annulated'. The ocelli are far apart, not grouped on a tubercle. The maxillary palps have a sensillum on the inner side of the second segment. Labial palpi are 2-segmented. The forewings are usually acuminate with the main veins running more nearly parallel to the long axis of the wing than usual; the pterostigma is not thickened; CuP and IA meet the wing margin separately. In the hind wing the media is usually branched. The tarsi are 3-segmented and the claws toothed. The pulvillus is long and fine with or without an expanded tip. The paraprocts do not have a well defined trichobothrial field but some of the larger setae arise from patterned alveoli and a large posterior spine is present. The female gonapophyses are reduced, usually consisting of only the elongate, setose external valve. The male phallosome is open anteriorly with anteriorly diverging arms. The eggs are sculptured, laid singly and are not covered in any way.

Two females from Christmasd Island, Indian Ocean were identified by Smithers (1995) as Thylacella sp. and Lepidopscocus sp.

General References

Enderlein, G. 1906. The scaly-winged Copeognatha (Monograph of the Amphientomidae, Lepidopsocidae and Lepidillidae in relation to their morphology and taxonomy). Spolia Zeylanica 4: 39-122 6 figs pls A-G

Schmidt, E.R. & Thornton, I.W.B. 1993. The Psocoptera (Insecta) of Wilsons Promontory National Park, Victoria, Australia. Memoirs of the National Museum of Victoria, Melbourne 53(2): 137-220 249 figs [Date published 1993: publication dated 31 December 1992]

Smithers, C.N. 1965. The Lepidopsocidae (Psocoptera) of Australia. Journal of the Entomological Society of Queensland 4: 72-78 20 figs

Smithers, C.N. 1995. Psocoptera (Insecta) of Christmas Island. Invertebrate Taxonomy 9: 529-561

Smithers, C.N. & Thornton, I.W.B. 1974. The Psocoptera (Insecta) of Norfolk Island. Records of the Australian Museum 29(8): 209-234 figs 1-67

Smithers, C.N. & Thornton, I.W.B. 1975. The Psocoptera (Insecta) of Lord Howe Island. Records of the Australian Museum 29(16): 453-472 54 figs

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