Chance record of an annual mass emergence of enigmatic mantis-flies

(Pensoft Publishers) Being neither mantids nor flies, the peculiar mantis-flies are in fact predatory lacewings which use their mantis-like forelegs to catch prey. While most mantis-flies are known to feed on spider eggs in their immature stages, the larval lifestyle of one subfamily has remained a mystery. That is until James Dorey, an insect photographer and entomology student, encountered a mass emergence of a species from the ground, as reported in the open-access Biodiversity Data Journal.