(Scopoli, 1763), the type species of the Osmylidae, has garnered significant research interest in taxonomy, particularly regarding its larval stages. To date, most studies have focused on the third instar larvae, but ignore the first instar larvae with the rough and incomplete morphological descriptions. This lack of studies has led to an unclear understanding of the morphological differences between larval stages, making it challenging to identify larvae, distinguish different osmylid species or even reconstruct phylogeny.
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Mao et al. (2024) studied this question.
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