Fairy visitor

This beauty perched on a curtain ring caught my eye and it's a nocturnal creature so it was sleepy and didn't mind sitting on my finger, although I'm still going to brag to @qwerrie that I am the insect whisperer.

It's an adult ant-lion and I haven't seen wings like this before so after reaching for the insect identifier, I found that its a tree-hole Antlion, genus Cymothales and they are found only in arid areas in Southern Africa. I thought ant lions only lived in sand, I'm familiar with the pit trap builders but ant lions that live in trees are news to me. Apparently they are also found in fine sand on rock ledges under overhangs which fits with the soil type and the rocky environment found here but I read elsewhere that the larvae are unknown, so how it's known where the larvae are found is beyond me.

focus on the wings

I wish I had a decent macro to do this beauty justice although these are not bad pictures for HD one-handed on the phone. It happily sat on my finger but when I tried to transfer it elsewhere to to take better pictures, it flew off

I read that ant-lions are difficult to distinguish from damselflies but the defining characteristic, apart from being nocturnal, is the antennae, Ant lion antennae are long and damselflies are barely noticeable.

Although the young are prodatory, the adults live on pollen and nectar although some are also predatory. I wonder if this one is predatory, the hooked hairy legs remind me of robber flies and seem more suitable for grappling rather than perching on plants.

A fun fact about the lacewing family: the the larva all suck the juices from their prey so have a liquid diet and the anus is sealed and the waste products are stored until after the adult emerges from the cocoon. Only they does it excrete all that waste. The insect kingdom is truly bizarre...