Family Ascalaphidae - Owl-flies

This page contains pictures and information about Owl-flies that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.

Adults in this family are from medium to large size. They have the long and club pear-shaped antennae. When rest, their abdomen is extended above the stem that they are sitting on while their wings hanging downwards.

Adults are predator, hunting insects in flight. Some of them are active both day and night. The larvae hunt prey with their large jaw on ground and low vegetations.


Owl-fly lays eggs on grass seed stem. Larvae

Their eggs are hard and oval, laid in masses around twigs or grass-stalk, number in about 50 to 100.

We found one species in this family.

Australian Owl-fly - Suhpalacsa subtrahens


Female, body length 45mm

The Australian Owl-fly is dark greyish brown in colour with yellow markings. Eyes are greyish brown, with long and knobbed antennae. Two pairs of membrane wings are clean with dark brown pterostigma. Legs are short and dark in colour.

We sometimes saw this Owlfly in Alexandra Hill and Karawatha Forest (both are opened Eucalypt forest in Brisbane) in mid summer. It rested on plant about a meter from ground. When distributed, it slowly fly away to another plant near by.
Female
Females and males are look similar, female with slender abdomen.


Found in Alexandra Hill

The Owlfly has the long and clubbed antenna, otherwise it looks like a dragonfly.


Pictures taken in Karawatha Forest, early summer

As a Lacewing, the Owl flies relatively fast-flying insects, however, they are not as good flier as the dragonfly. They rest on stems most of the time. Only fly when disturbed. They fly in short distance.


Alexandra Hill, mid-summer


Mt Cotton, mid-summer

Males look similar to the females with slender and longer abdomen.


Body length 45mm

Those Owlflies were usually found late afternoon in Karawatha Forest during early summer. It flied away only when we came too closely.



It seems that they are active near late afternoon to evening, likes to rest on grass stems.


Found in Karawatha Forest





Notice the eyes divided horizontally.


Eggs, 2mm x 3mm

In mid-summer we found a cluster of eggs on grass seed stem. There were more than 30 eggs encircling the stem. We took them home and waited to see what would come out.


Larvae body length 4mm

A few days later, an Owlfly larva came out from each eggs. They stayed together on the empty egg shells motionless for one or two days. Then that started to move around. We put them back to where we found them. The Owlfly larvae are predators live in plant litter or on trees.

Reference:
1. Insects of Australia, CSIRO, Division of Entomology, Melbourne University Press, 2nd Edition 1991, pp 541.
2. Insects of Australia and New Zealand - R. J. Tillyard, Angus & Robertson, Ltd, Sydney, 1926, p324.
3. Wildlife of greater Brisbane - Queensland Museum, p99.
4. A field guide to insects in Australia - By Paul Zborowski and Ross Storey, Reed New Holland, 1996, p105.
5. Revision of the Australian Ascalaphidae (Insecta: Neuroptera) - New, T.R. (1984). Aust. J. Zool. Suppl. 100: 1-86.