What is "snakefly"

n. Any insect of the order Raphidioptera.

n. predatory insect of western North America having a long necklike prothorax

Snakeflies are a group of insects comprising the order Raphidioptera, which is divided into two families: Raphidiidae and Inocelliida consisting of roughly 260 species. Together with the Megaloptera they were formerly placed within the Neuroptera, but now these two are generally regarded as separate orders. This order has been considered a living fossil, the phenotype of a species from the early jurassic period (140 million years ago) closely resemble modern day species.

The etymology of the name for the order, Raphidioptera, comes from the Greek "raphio", which means needle, and "ptera", which means wings.