10, see text Promegalomidae Hemerobiidae is a family of Neuropteran insects commonly known as brown lacewings, comprising about 500 species in 28 genera.

Some genera (Hemerobius, Micromus, Notiobiella, Sympherobius, Wesmaelius) are widespread, but most are restricted to a single biogeographical realm.

The Cretaceous Mesohemerobius was formerly considered a brown lacewing, but is today rather placed as incertae sedis in the Neuroptera; it might be a member of the Hemerobioidea but not even that is certain.

Notable fossil Hemerobiidae genera are:[8] The extinct genus Hemerobites was originally described in 1813 from a specimen preserved in Baltic amber as a hemerobiid.

[9] Another species from the same genus, Wesmaelius makarkini was found in Garang Formation of Zeku County, Qinghai Province, China, in 2018.

[7] Some additional brown lacewing larvae have been found as fossils, but it has been impossible to determine their generic or subfamilial association.