Panorpida

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
Cladus: Metapterygota
Infraclassis: Neoptera
Cladus: Eumetabola
Cladus: Endopterygota
Superordo: Panorpida
Cladi: Amphiesmenoptera – Antliophora
[list of cladi after Grimaldi & Engel (2005: 147, table 4.1)]
Overview of ordines

Diptera – Lepidoptera – "Mecoptera" – Siphonaptera – Trichoptera – †Permotrichoptera – ?Strepsiptera
[list of ordines after Grimaldi & Engel (2005: 147, table 4.1), Minet et al. (2010)]

Name

Panorpida
Synonyms

Mecopterida

References

Grimaldi, D.; Engel, M.S. 2005: Evolution of the insects. Cambridge University Press, New York, USA. limited preview on Google books
Minet, J.; Huang, D-y.; Wu, H.; Nel, A. 2010: Early Mecopterida and the systematic position of the Microptysmatidae (Insecta: Endopterygota). Annales de la Société entomologique de France (n.s.), 46: 262–270. ISSN: 0037-9271

Panorpida or Mecopterida is a proposed superorder of Endopterygota. The conjectured monophyly of the Panorpida is historically based on morphological evidence, namely the reduction or loss of the ovipositor and several internal characteristics, including a muscle connecting a pleuron and the first axillary sclerite at the base of the wing, various features of the larval maxilla and labium, and basal fusion of CuP and A1 veins in the hind wings.[1][2] The monophyly of the Panorpida is supported by recent molecular data.[3]

Panzygothoraca	Hymenoptera (sawflies, wasps, ants, bees)   Panorpida Amphiesmenoptera   Trichoptera (caddisflies)     Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths)       Antliophora
part of Endopterygota

 

Antliophora
 
 
part of Endopterygota
Antliophora

The Panorpid clade Antliophora contains one of the major phylogenetic puzzles among the Insecta. It is unclear as of 2020 whether the Mecoptera (scorpionflies and allies) form a single clade, or whether the Siphonaptera (fleas) are inside that clade, so that the traditional "Mecoptera" is paraphyletic. However the earlier suggestion that the Siphonaptera are sister to the Boreidae (snow scorpionflies)[4][5][6] is not supported; instead, there is the possibility that they are sister to another Mecopteran family, the Nannochoristidae of the Southern hemisphere. The two possible trees are shown below:[7]

(a) Mecoptera is paraphyletic, containing Siphonaptera:[7]

Antliophora

Diptera (true flies)       Pistillifera (scorpionflies, hangingflies, 400 spp.)         Nannochoristidae (southern scorpionflies, 8 spp.)     Siphonaptera (fleas, 2500 spp.)       Boreidae (snow scorpionflies, 30 spp.)

 
 

(b) Mecoptera is monophyletic, sister to Siphonaptera[7]

Antliophora

Mecoptera     Pistillifera (scorpionflies, hangingflies, 400 spp.)     Boreidae (snow scorpionflies, 30 spp.)       Nannochoristidae (southern scorpionflies, 8 spp.)     Siphonaptera (fleas, 2500 spp.)

 
 
References

Kristensen, Niels Peder (1975). "The phylogeny of hexapod "orders". A critical review of recent accounts". Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research. 1 (13): 1–44. doi:10.1111/j.1439-0469.1975.tb00226.x.
Kristensen, Niels Peder (1991). "Phylogeny of extant hexapods". Insects of Australia: 126–140.
Grimaldi, David; Engel, Michael, S. (2005). Evolution of the Insects. Cambridge University Press. p. 468. ISBN 978-0-521-82149-0.
Whiting, Michael F.; Whiting, Alison S.; Hastriter, Michael W.; Dittmar, Katharina (2008). "A molecular phylogeny of fleas (Insecta: Siphonaptera): origins and host associations". Cladistics. 24 (5): 677–707. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.731.5211. doi:10.1111/j.1096-0031.2008.00211.x. S2CID 33808144.
Whiting, Michael F. (2002). "Mecoptera is paraphyletic: multiple genes and phylogeny of Mecoptera and Siphonaptera". Zoologica Scripta. 31 (1): 93–104. doi:10.1046/j.0300-3256.2001.00095.x. S2CID 56100681. Archived from the original on 2013-01-05.
Wiegmann, Brian; Yeates, David K. (2012). The Evolutionary Biology of Flies. Columbia University Press. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-231-50170-5. "Recently, a close affinity between Siphonaptera and Mecoptera has been convincingly demonstrated via morphology (Bilinski et al. 1998) and molecular data (Whiting 2002), rendering Mecoptera paraphyletic, but making the clade including Mecoptera and Siphonaptera monophyletic"

Meusemann, Karen; Trautwein, Michelle; Friedrich, Frank; Beutel, Rolf G.; Wiegmann, Brian M.; et al. (2020). "Are Fleas Highly Modified Mecoptera? Phylogenomic Resolution of Antliophora (Insecta: Holometabola)". bioRxiv 10.1101/2020.11.19.390666.

Minet, J.; Huang, D-y.; Wu, H.; Nel, A. 2010: Early Mecopterida and the systematic position of the Microptysmatidae (Insecta: Endopterygota). Annales de la Société Entomologique de France (n.s.), 46: 262-270. ISSN 0037-9271