Microminae is a subfamily of neuropteran insects of the family

Hemerobiidae Hemerobiidae is a family of Neuropteran insects commonly known as brown lacewings, comprising about 500 species in 28 genera. Most are yellow to dark brown, but some species are green. They are small; most have forewings 4–10 mm long (som ...

. Includes the genera '' Micromus'' (with global distribution), '' Nusalala'' (with

Neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bioge ...

distribution), '' Noius'' (New Caledonia), and '' Megalomina'' (Australia and New Guinea). The subfamily is characterized by a single unambiguous

synapomorphy In phylogenetics, an apomorphy (or derived trait) is a novel character or character state that has evolved from its ancestral form (or plesiomorphy). A synapomorphy is an apomorphy shared by two or more taxa and is therefore hypothesized to hav ...

, male abdominal tergites 9 and 10 fused (49:1), and two homoplasious transformations (23:1 and 37:1). Recent studies place Drepanepteryginae as the sister subfamily of Microminae, with its

last common ancestor In biology and genetic genealogy, the most recent common ancestor (MRCA), also known as the last common ancestor (LCA) or concestor, of a set of organisms is the most recent individual from which all the organisms of the set are descended. The ...

estimated to have lived between 131-141 million years ago. The same study places the last common ancestor of all Microminae somewhere in between 112 and 118 million years ago.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3311929 Insect subfamilies