Epipsocidae is an

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Psocodea Psocodea is a taxonomic group of insects comprising the bark lice, book lice and parasitic lice. It was formerly considered a superorder, but is now generally considered by entomologists as an order. Despite the greatly differing appearance of ...

(formerly

Psocoptera Psocoptera are a paraphyletic group of insects that are commonly known as booklice, barklice or barkflies. The name Psocoptera has been replaced with Psocodea in recent literature, with the inclusion of the former order Phthiraptera into Psocode ...

) belonging to the

suborder Order ( la, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and ...

Psocomorpha Psocomorpha is a suborder of barklice, booklice, and parasitic lice in the order Psocodea (formerly Psocoptera). There are more than 20 families and 5,300 described species in Psocomorpha. Phylogeny The below cladogram of Psocodea shows the p ...

, that includes, among others, the genera '' Bertkauia'', '' Epipsocus'', '' Epipsocopsis'', '' Goja'', and the

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

'' Dicropsocus''. It includes 16 genera with more than 140 species. The only European species in the family is the (almost always) apterous ''Bertkauia lucifuga''. Like the other members of the

infraorder Order ( la, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and ...

Epipsocetae Epipsocetae is an infraorder of psocids in the order (biology), order Psocodea (formerly Psocoptera). There are about 5 families and more than 480 described species in Epipsocetae. Families These five families belong to the infraorder Epipsoceta ...

, they have a labrum with two sclerotized ridges. Epipsocids are barklice found primarily in tropical regions, and one of their distinguishing characteristics is the hairy ventral surface of the forewing.

Sources

*Lienhard, C. & Smithers, C. N. 2002. Psocoptera (Insecta): World Catalogue and Bibliography. Instrumenta Biodiversitatis, vol. 5. Muséum d'histoire naturelle, Genève.

References

Psocoptera families {{Psocoptera-stub