| Perilestidae Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
| |
| Perissolestes guianensis | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Odonata |
| Suborder: | Zygoptera |
| Superfamily: | Lestoidea |
| Family: | Perilestidae Kennedy, 1920[1] |
The Perilestidae are a family of damselflies commonly known as shortwings and twigtails.[2] It is a small family of around 19 species.[3] All extant species are native to the Neotropical realm. In the past Nubiolestes of Africa was included in this family,[3] but this is doubted. Palaeoperilestes electronicus is an extinct species described from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber.[4]
These damselflies are short-winged and have very long, slender, color-banded abdomens.[2] They live in dense forest habitat and rest with their abdomens hanging vertically.[5]
- ^ Kennedy, C.H. (1920). "The phylogeny of the zygopterous dragonflies as based on the evidence of the penes". Ohio Journal of Science. 21 (1): 19-29 [25] – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
- ^ a b Haber, W. and Wagner, D. Perilestidae: Shortwings. Dragonflies and Damselflies of Ecuador.
- ^ a b Neiss, U. G. and Neusa, H. (2010). The larva of Perilestes attenuatus Selys, 1886 (Odonata: Perilestidae) from Amazonas, Brazil. Zootaxa 2614 53-58.
- ^ Zheng, Daran; Wang, Bo; Jarzembowski, Edmund A.; Chang, Su-Chin; Nel, André (2016-10-01). "The first fossil Perilestidae (Odonata: Zygoptera) from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber" (PDF). Cretaceous Research. 65: 199–205. Bibcode:2016CrRes..65..199Z. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2016.05.002. hdl:10722/231813.
- ^ Machado, A. (2015). Perilestes eustaquioi sp. nov. and new distributional records of Perilestidae (Odonata) in Brazil. Zoologia (Curitiba), 32(5), 428-430.