The snakeflies or camelnecks (Raphidioptera) belong systematically to the superorder Neuropteroidea, together with the orders Megaloptera and Plannipennia (=Neuroptera s. str.). Neuropteroidea are considered to be the evolutionary earliest holometabolic insects. An interesting fact is the limitation of Raphidioptera to the northern hemisphere. There are no Raphidioptera species, occurring south to the 15th northern parallel.
Raphidioptera is a small insect group comprising "only" about 175 species in two families worldwide, Raphidiidae and Inocelliidae (i.e. Coleoptera, the species-richest insect order and systematically a sister group of Neuropteroidea, counts about 400.000 species.).
The Bulgarian Raphidioptera count 13 species, one of them represented by two subspecies and one by one subspecies. The subspecies Phaeostigma setulosa setulosa, Aspoeck & Aspoeck 1967 (type locality: Sliven, Karandila) and the species Phaeostigma rhodopica, Klapalek 1894 are first described in Bulgaria (Aspoeck et al. 1991).
Raphidiidae
Phaeostigma (Phaeostigma) pilicollis
Phaeostigma (Magnoraphidia) major
Phaeostigma (Pontoraphidia) setulosa setulosa
Phaeostigma (Pontoraphidia) rhodopica
Dichrostigma flavipes
Turcoraphidia amara
Ornatoraphidia etrusca
Xanthostigma xanthostigma
Raphidia (Raphidia) ophiopsis ophiopsis
Raphidia (Raphidia) ophiopsis mediterranea
Raphidia (Raphidia) beieri
Puncha ratzeburgi
Venustoraphidia nigricollis
Inocelliidae
Parainocellia braueri
