Order Embioptera - Web-spinners

• Haploembia species

Elongate, soft-bodied insects living in silken web-like tunnels. Males sometimes with two pairs of equal-sized membranous wings. The wings are smoky brown in colour and clothed with fine hairs. Females always wingless. Head as broad as the body, with typical biting jaws. Tarsi 3-segmented, with the basal segment of each front tarsus enlarged and swollen. Metamorphosis simple. About 170 known species distributed throughout all the warmer regions of the world, with a few in southern Europe. Absent from the British Isles.

Description. Brown, up to 10 mm long.

Biology. Known as Web-spinners because they make silken webs and tunnels under stones, logs and in the soil. They live in small communities of a dozen or so individuals and generally stay in and around their tunnels. Although the individuals do not cooperate, their tangled, communal webs probably give extra protection from centipedes and other predators. The silk is produced from special glands in the swollen tarsal segment on each front leg. Eggs are laid in the tunnels and the female looks after them and the young nymphs for a while. Food unknown, but probably omnivorous.

Distribution. The species illustrated, Haploembia solieri, is found in parts of southern Europe and north Africa.

Photo: Ken-ichi, CCA Share Alike License

Female