Pugilopsidae

The Pugilops was a highly derived Late Muricene whiplasher that used its powerful flight skills and sharp eyesight to target aerial and ground-based prey. Some members of the genus were solitary and used their sheer size to inflict blunt-force damage on their isopod targets, while others ganged up in swarms for the same purpose. Still other species adapted to chase down flying insects. This variety of niches made the group resilient against the changing world of the Ice Age, allowing them to emerge into the Arthrocene nearly untouched by the mass extinction. Three million years later, they've branched out into a whole family of predators called the Pugilopsids. 

Eagleflies (Aquiloculex) are the most basal pugilopsids, descending from the solitary castlebug-specialists that flew above the old rat-grasslands. They have grown to giant proportions, with wingspans often in excess of half a meter. They are large enough to terrorize even the most well-armored woodlice, with maxillae strong enough to bash through hard exoskeletons in a single blow. Speeds of fifty kilometers per hour are not uncommon during dives, making them nearly impossible to see coming. Though they remain primarily hunters of pill bugs, some also go after small vertebrates when the opportunity arises.

With such massive forces being exerted, the Eaglefly needs armor of its own to prevent being killed on impact. Tough chitinous plates on its face and thick, rigid costa veins on its wings serve this purpose, absorbing shocks that would be a death sentence to any other bug. The leading edge of the wing has also evolved a pterostigma. This dot of dense, melanin-rich cells near the wingtip helps resist bending and breaking both in level flight and during the mosquito's air-to-ground strikes. Eagleflies generally envenomate and then carry off their prey after killing it, as their broad wings and muscular legs can carry up to 100 grams in payload. Stashing the liquefied creature under a rock or a hollow log, they can then subsist for up to a month before setting out to find their next meal.

Falconflies (Falcoculex), though only a third as large as eagleflies, are far more agile in their pursuit of airborne prey. Descended from the species Pugilops culicovenator, falconflies have a particular taste for slow-moving dustflies. Possessing a massive pair of eyes and finely-tuned halteres for maneuvering, they can also hold their own against more adept fliers like palmpeckers, locust reapers, and even other Pugilopsids. With significantly less brute strength than their larger cousins, they have specialized to attack the wings of their prey. Their maxillae have downward-pointing spines, allowing them to pierce the thin membrane. After latching on, the two mouthparts pull apart, tearing a hole and sending their prey plummeting to the ground below. Once grounded, a quick jab from the proboscis injects a lethal dose of flagelloculicin. 

By trading raw wing-muscle power for agility, falconflies have sacrificed the ability to transport the bodies of the insects they kill. As such, they must feed quickly, consuming as much of its soupy innards as they can before other carnivores, drawn in by the enticing scent of raw meat, bully it away from its prize. They often only get the chance to eat a small fraction of the downed fly, so they waste no time in finding their next victim. With their small meals and fast metabolisms, falconflies kill far more often than eagleflies, often dispatching half a dozen flies in a day.

In the Muricene, the social Pugilops were the dominant group, using their strength in numbers to swarm castlebugs and other solitary woodlice. With the rise of the highly efficient dive-bombing eagleflies, though, they've been forced to broaden their menu. Pugilopsids like Influoculex feed on insects, isopods, springtails, the contents of cracked bird eggs, and occasionally even pilfer sap from palm-grasses. Their maxillae are short, strong, and unspecialized to allow them to access this range of food sources. Being the most generalistic insects yet to evolve, they have a worldwide distribution. Occupying nearly every biome, Influoculex across the globe often face a similar issue: many environments lack long-lasting stagnant sources of water where they can lay their eggs.

Luckily, Pugilopsids are pansanguinophages, a group known for their delayed maturation. The ancestral pansanguinophagus subgenus of Early Muricene Aedes was the first to employ this strategy, emerging from their pupae before they reached their full size. Influoculex has taken this to an extreme; when they pupate, their respiratory systems, maxillae, and legs mature, allowing them to crawl onto land and begin their terrestrial lives as wingless subadults. These subimagines then undergo a further molt about three days later, after which their wings unfurl and their proboscis hardens. The reproductive system also does not develop until this stage. Their multi-step metamorphosis permits a much shorter aquatic phase of the bug's life cycle, with the larvae spending no more than 36 hours in the ephemeral pools they were born in. This genus - commonly known as Amphibiinsects - can therefore breed almost anywhere. Puddles of rainwater after a storm, phytotelmata of palm-grasses, can-grasses, and Trichopileads, and ponds of fast-evaporating water in the desert are all options. Like eagleflies, amphibiinsects can carry objects from one place to another, and they commonly deposit detritus, seeds, or scraps of meat for their young to eat, further accelerating their growth. When they arrive with food, they make a loud buzzing sound with their wings to alert the larvae, causing them to crowd around their parent in a rough, wriggling struggle for nourishment.