Micromus paganus

Micromus paganus is described in Plant (1997} as very common throughout the British Isles. That doesn't seem to be the case in Norfolk where it appears to be rather scarce (13 records up to 2021). Norfolk records have fallen between the second week of May and the first week of July.

Micromus species differ from most other brown lacewings in forewing detail, having no recurrent humeral vein and at least 3 branches to the radial vein. Of the 3 Micromus species, variegatus is distinctive in having a characteristic wing pattern. Micromus paganus differs from angulatus (very rare in Norfolk) in having less rounded forewings, usually 5 branches to the radial vein (but occasionally 4 like angulatus, and two of the ones below have 6), usually yellowish-brown forewings (more reddish-brown in angulatus) and a strikingly downward-curving "claw" at the tip of the male's abdomen.

male Micromus paganus, Bunker's Hill (Norfolk, UK), 9th May 2016

This individual shows six radial veins on the forewing rather than the five the species is meant to show. I was a little confused by the abdomen here. It had the claw-like appendage at the end of its abdomen that characterises males of this species but below this claw-like appendage, segment 9 (I think) also protrudes in a way that is not shown in the diagram in Plant. I wondered if it was just a bit of anatomy that's normally present but abnormally extruded here, or even if it could have both male and female parts, but I finally solved the puzzle (I think) when I examined a couple of Micromus angulatus in 2024. Although Plant's text refers to the tip of the abdomen not specifically the apical tergite, the description and diagram appear to ignore the apical sternite for both species even though this can protrude further back than the tergite.

male Micromus paganus showing forewing and hindwing (both lit from below and then from above) and abdomen from side, North Elmham, (Norfolk, UK), 22nd May 2022

This one also shows six radial veins - clearly this feature is more variable than you might think from reading the textbooks.

male Micromus paganus showing abdomen tip and six forewing radial veins, Hedenham Wood (Norfolk, UK), 11th June 2016