Euphaeidae

{{Short description|Family of damselflies}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| image =Euphaea fraseri male at Kadavoor.jpg

| image_caption = Euphaea fraseri, male

| image2 =Euphaea fraseri female at Kadavoor.jpg

| image2_caption = Euphaea fraseri, female

| taxon = Euphaeidae

| authority = Yakobson & Bianchi, 1905{{cite book |last1=Jacobson |first1=G. G. |last2=Bianki |first2=V. L. |year=1905 |title=Orthoptera and Pseudoneuroptera of the Russian Empire and bordering countries |location=St. Petersburg |publisher=A.F. Devrien |pages=952 [725] |isbn=978-5-4460-2061-4 |language=Russian |trans-title=Прямокрылые и ложносетчатокрылые Российской империи и сопредельных стран }}

| subdivision_ranks = Subfamilies

| subdivision =

• Eodichromatinae
• Euphaeinae

|synonyms=

• Epallagidae Needham, 1903{{Cite journal |last=Bechly |first=G. |year=1998 |title=New fossil damselflies from Baltic Amber, with description of a new species, a redescription of Litheuphaea carpenteri Fraser, and a discussion on the phylogeny of Epallagidae (Zygoptera: Caloptera) |journal= International Journal of Odonatology |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=33–63 |doi=10.1080/13887890.1998.9748092 |bibcode=1998IJOdo...1...33B |issn=1388-7890 |doi-access=free }}

}}

Euphaeidae, sometimes incorrectly named Epallagidae and commonly called gossamerwings, is a family of damselflies in the odonate superfamily Calopterygoidea. The family is small, consisting of around 78 species living species in nine genera occurring in the Palearctic, Australasia, and Asia. The family contains two subfamilies, Euphaeinae, encompassing all the living species and a single fossil genus, and the extinct Eodichromatinae, encompassing fossil genera from the Eocene to late Oligocene.{{Cite journal|last1=Archibald |first1=S. B. |last2=Cannings |first2=R. A. |year=2021 |title=A new genus and species of Euphaeidae (Odonata, Zygoptera) from the early Eocene Okanagan Highlands locality at Republic, Washington, U.S.A. |journal=Zootaxa |volume=4966 |issue=3 |pages=392–400 |doi=10.11646/zootaxa.4966.3.11 |pmid=34186607 |s2cid=235557114 }} Euphaeid species are large and mostly metallic-coloured, looking similar to species of damselflies in the family Calopterygidae.{{World Odonata List}}

The larvae have seven pairs of supplementary gills along the abdomen in addition to the usual three sac-like gills at the tip of the abdomen. Adults have the fore- and hindwings of equal length, barely petiolate and a long pterostigma that is broader in the hindwing. Adults have close veins and numerous antenodals (15-38), and most breed in forest streams.{{cite journal|author=Hämäläinen, M.|year= 2003| title= Cryptophaea, a new euphaeid genus and three new species of Caloptera damselflies from Thailand (Odonata: Euphaeidae, Calopterygidae).| journal=Zool. Med. Leiden |volume=77 |issue=25| pages=441–454|url=http://www.repository.naturalis.nl/document/44286}}{{cite journal|volume= 2|pages=135–140|url=http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/nis/bulletin2009/2009nis135-140.pdf|year=2009 |title= The biology of Euphaea impar Selys (Odonata: Euphaeidae) in Singapore| author= Lok, A. F. S. L. and A. G. Orr|journal=Nature in Singapore}}