Overview

This is a strange little family with just four species in a single genus, Lestoidea . It is endemic to rainforests in north east Queensland. Lestoideidae is the accepted family name but it is important to distinguish genus Lestoidea from superfamily Lestoidea (same spelling, but a superfamily based on the genus Lestes ). The taxonomic history of Lestoidea is complex because its member species show features that might suggest a position in either Megapodagrionoidea or Lestoidea, or perhaps with family Diphlebiidae. The currently accepted position is as genus Lestoidea comprising family Lestoideidae within superfamily Lestoidea.

The four species are medium sized, dark brown to black damselflies with a yellow-orange, or in one case an orange-red, area on the side of the thorax and limited yellow-orange markings elsewhere. All inhabit streams in rainforest. The anterior sector of the arculus forks closer to the arculus than the subnodus and the pterostigma is rather long (similar to Lestidae) but the discoidal cell is blunt, vein Cu is short (only 1-2 cells long), and the anal vein is vestigial (similar to Isostictidae and Protoneuridae), larval gills are saccoid with tufted tips as in Megapodagrionidae and Diphlebiidae.