Palaeodictyoptera

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Protostomia
Cladus: Ecdysozoa
Cladus: Panarthropoda
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Classis: Insecta
Cladus: Dicondylia
Subclassis: Pterygota
Ordo: †Palaeodictyoptera
Familiae: Archaemegaptilidae – Breyeriidae – Calvertiellidae – Diathemidae – Dictyoneuridae – Elmoboriidae – Eugereonidae – Fouqueidae – Graphiptilidae – Homoiopteridae – Lithomanteidae – Lycocercidae – Mecynostomatidae – Megaptilidae – Permothemistidae – Spilapteridae – Syntonopteridae – Tchirkovaeidae

Genera (incertae sedis): Althansia – Ametretus – Amousus – Anagesthes – Anthracosta – Asiodictya – Bathytaptus – Bojoptera – Boltonocosta – Catadyesthus – Compsoneura – Diexodus – Eumecoptera – Eurydictyella – Eurythmopteryx – Gegenemene – Haplophlebium – Heolus – Idoptilus – Jongmansia – Kansasia – Lodetiella – Mammia – Mecynoptera – Mecynostomites – Monsteropterum – Palaiotaptus – Palapteris – Paramecynostoma – Paramegaptilus – Platephemera – Propalingenia – Pseudomecynostoma – Psychroptilus – Pteronidia – Rochdalia – Saarlandia – Sabitaptus – Schedoneura – Severinopsis – Titanodictya – Turnbullia
Name

† Palaeodictyoptera Goldenberg, 1877
References
Primary references

Goldenberg, F. 1877. Fauna Saraepontana Fossilis. Die fossilen Thiere aus der Steinkohlenformation von Saarbrücken. II.tes Heft. 1–54. Hathitrust Reference page. : 8

Additional references

Shcherbakov, D.E. 2011: The alleged Triassic palaeodictyopteran is a member of Titanoptera. Zootaxa, 3044: 65–68. Preview

Links

Palaeodictyoptera – Taxon details on Fossilworks.

Vernacular names
日本語: 古網翅目
中文: 古網翅目

The Palaeodictyoptera are an extinct order of medium-sized to very large, primitive Palaeozoic paleopterous insects. They are informative about the evolution of wings in insects.

Overview
Restoration of Mazothairos

They were characterized by beak-like mouthparts, used to pierce plant tissues for feeding. There is a similarity between their fore- and hindwings, and an additional pair of winglets on the prothorax, in front of the first pair of wings. They are known as "six-winged insects" because of the presence of a pair of wings on each of the thoracic segments.[1][2][3][4] Their winglets provide clues to the origins of the first insect wings.

The mouthparts were elongated, and included sharp piercing stylets, and possibly a sucking pump-like organ. Unlike modern sucking insects, such as the Hemipterans, the mouthparts were held vertically below the head, or projected forwards. They probably used these organs to suck juices from plants, although some may have been ectoparasites, or predators.[5]

Some types attained huge size. For example, Mazothairos had a wingspan of about 55 centimetres (22 in). Another distinctive feature was the presence of unusually long cerci, about twice the length of the abdomen.[5]

The Palaeodictyoptera are a paraphyletic assemblage of basal palaeodictyopteroidean insects, rather than a clade, because they gave rise to other insect orders. They range in time from the Middle Carboniferous (late Serpukhovian or early Bashkirian in age) to the late Permian.
References

iconPaleontology portal

Parzer, Harald; Stansbury, Matthew (22 October 2018). "Enriching Undergraduate Entomology Coursework through the Integration of Evolutionary Developmental Biology". The American Biology Teacher. 80 (8): 561–569. doi:10.1525/abt.2018.80.8.561.
Tomoyasu, Yoshinori; Wheeler, Scott R.; Denell, Robin E. (February 2005). "Ultrabithorax is required for membranous wing identity in the beetle Tribolium castaneum". Nature. 433 (7026): 643–647. Bibcode:2005Natur.433..643T. doi:10.1038/nature03272. PMID 15703749.
Elias-Neto, Moysés; Belles, Xavier (3 August 2016). "Tergal and pleural structures contribute to the formation of ectopic prothoracic wings in cockroaches". Royal Society Open Science. 3 (8): 160347. Bibcode:2016RSOS....360347E. doi:10.1098/rsos.160347. PMC 5108966. PMID 27853616.
Tomoyasu, Yoshinori (January 2018). "Evo–Devo: The Double Identity of Insect Wings". Current Biology. 28 (2): R75–R77. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2017.12.004. PMID 29374449.

Hoell, H.V.; Doyen, J.T. & Purcell, A.H. (1998). Introduction to Insect Biology and Diversity (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 321. ISBN 0-19-510033-6.

External links

Paleodictyoptera at the Tree of Life project (list of taxa)

Further reading
Carpenter, F. M. 1992. Superclass Hexapoda. Volume 3 of Part R, Arthropoda 4; Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Boulder, Colorado, Geological Society of America.
Grimaldi, David & Engel, Michael S. (2005-05-16). Evolution of the Insects. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-82149-5.
Rasnitsyn, A.P. & Quicke, D.L.J. (2002). History of Insects. Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN 1-4020-0026-X.