Extended-life-cycle
Guides
Anostostomatidae
wētā, king crickets
Anostostomatidae is a family of large, nocturnal orthopterans in the superfamily Stenopelmatoidea, distributed across the southern hemisphere in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and parts of the Americas. Members are commonly known as king crickets in Australia and South Africa, and wētā in New Zealand. The family exhibits considerable size variation, with some species exceeding 8 cm in length. Many species are flightless, though winged forms occur in some Australian and Asian genera. The family is notable for diverse feeding strategies including herbivory, scavenging, predation, and specialized fungal feeding.
Geolycosa
Burrowing Wolf Spiders
Geolycosa is a genus of burrowing wolf spiders (family Lycosidae) established by Montgomery in 1904. These spiders are characterized by their obligate burrowing lifestyle, constructing deep cylindrical burrows in sandy or loose soils. Some species build distinctive turrets around burrow openings using sticks and debris. The genus includes approximately 70 species distributed across North America, with some species extending into the Levant. Geolycosa species are medium to large spiders with morphological adaptations for digging, including enlarged chelicerae and stout anterior legs.
Oligoneuriidae
Brushlegged Mayflies, Brushleg Mayflies
Oligoneuriidae is a family of mayflies characterized by specialized filtering structures on their nymphs' forelegs, earning them the common name "brushlegged mayflies." The family exhibits a pantropical distribution with at least 68 described species across over a dozen genera, including both extant and extinct lineages from the Cretaceous period. Nymphs possess two rows of setae on the forelegs used for filter feeding and tufts of gills at the base of their maxillae. The family has been documented from freshwater habitats across Africa, South America, the Mediterranean region, and the Middle East, with some species showing extended multiyear life cycles.