Archaeognathan Machilidae serve as a model for the serially homologous sclerites of the terminal abdominal segments 9, 10, and 11: the gonocoxites, gonostyli and gonapophyses, which have copulative function in male Neuropterida. The identity of these genital sclerites may be camouflaged by excessive modelling of form, reduction, loss or fusion of single sclerites to complexes. If the identity of a sclerite is problematic, then a hypothesis based on a gonocoxite-concept has greater heuristic value than to interpret it as an accessorial de novo structure and to assign a new name. Coniopterygidae, with a fore wing length less than 6 mm, are truly the dwarfs among Neuroptera and comprise almost 580 known species representing three subfamilies. i) Brucheiserinae – apart from their unusual eidonomic appearance – surprise us with a complete set of genital sclerites; the fact that they possess a callus cerci indicates a rather plesiomorphic pattern within the family. ii) Coniopteryginae – in spite of their heterogeneity – allow us to distinguish the gonocoxite-complexes 9, 10, and 11. iii) Aleuropteryginae are also extremely heterogeneous and confront us with completely invaginated tergite and sternite 9, as in the genus Aleuropteryx, nevertheless the gonocoxite-complexes 9, 10 and 11 are otherwise recognizable. The male gonocoxite-complex 10 generally serves as a morphological landmark in Coniopterygidae. The present hypothesis of a sister-group relationship between Aleuropteryginae and the clade Brucheiserinae + Coniopteryginae remains valid. The phylogenetic position of Coniopterygidae within the order Neuroptera – either as sister-group of all other families or of the dilarid-clade or nested somewhere else – might be resolved by the current campaign of homologization.