Megapodagrionidae

Megapodagrionidae
Common flatwing (Austroargiolestes icteromelas: Argiolestinae)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Odonata
Suborder:	Zygoptera
Superfamily:	Lestoidea
Family:	Megapodagrionidae Tillyard, 1917
Genera
3+

The Megapodagrionidae are a family of damselflies, commonly called flatwings for their habit of spreading out the hind wings horizontally when at rest. They belong to the superfamily Lestoidea.

The Megapodagrionidae are usually divided into five or six subfamilies:

• Argiolestinae
• Hypolestinae
• Megapodagrioninae
• Philosininae
• Pseudolestinae (often treated as distinct family)

Of these, the Argiolestinae are most diverse, while the Megapodagrioninae and (if placed here) Pseudolestinae are smallish. The others are very small or even monotypic.

In addition, two monotypic genera are sometimes placed here as monotypic subfamilies: Thaumatoneura is otherwise regarded as a monotypic family of the Calopterygoidea. Coryphagrion was usually also considered a monotypic family in older treatments; in recent times it is often included in the Pseudostigmatidae of the superfamily Coenagrionoidea. The extinct genus Electropodagrion was described from a fossil in Baltic amber in 2008 and placed into the family, with no subfamily designation.^[1]

A 2013 phylogenetic analysis pares down this family into only three genera:^[2]

• Allopodagrion
• Megapodagrion
• Teinopodagrion

References

1. Azar, D.; Nel, A. (2008). "First Baltic amber megapodagrionid damselfly (Odonata: Zygoptera)". Annales de la Société Entomologique de France. New Series. 44 (4): 451–457. doi:10.1080/00379271.2008.10697580. – via Taylor & Francis (subscription required)
2. Dijkstra, K. D. B., Kalkman, V. J., Dow, R. A., Stokvis, F. R., & Van Tol, J. (2014). Redefining the damselfly families: a comprehensive molecular phylogeny of Zygoptera (Odonata). Systematic Entomology, 39(1), 68-96.

See also

• List of damselflies of the world (Megapodagrionidae)