Epiophlebia

The genus Epiophlebia is the sole member of the family Epiophlebiidae, which is itself the sole living representative of the Epiproctan infraorder Epiophlebioptera, and it contains only four species. The first two species were historically placed in their own suborder Anisozygoptera, considered intermediate between dragonflies and damselflies, mainly because the hind wings are very similar in size and shape to the forewings and held back over the body at rest, as in damselflies. It has more recently been recognized that the genus Epiophlebia shares a more recent ancestor with dragonflies (having become separated from these in and around the uplifting of the Himalayas), and the group has accordingly been reclassified as an infraorder within the dragonflies. Very recently a third species, Epiophlebia sinensis, have been described from Heilongjiang province in northeast China, bridging the Epiophlebia distribution gap between Nepal and Japan. And a fourth species is only known from larval material from South China.