Antlion, also spelled
ant-lion and
ant lion, is a name applied to a group of about 2,000
species of
insects in the
family Myrmeleontidae (sometimes misspelled as "Myrmeleonidae"). The best-known genus is
Myrmeleon ("antlion"). Strictly speaking, the term "antlion" applies to the
larval form of the members of this family, but while several languages have names for the adult, no word for them in
English is widely used. Very rarely, the adults are called
antlion lacewings.