Megasecoptera
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Megasecoptera is a
Paleozoic The Paleozoic ( , , ; or Palaeozoic) Era is the first of three Era (geology), geological eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. Beginning 538.8 million years ago (Ma), it succeeds the Neoproterozoic (the last era of the Proterozoic Eon) and ends 251.9 Ma a ...
insect Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...
order. There are 22 known families of megasecopterans, with about 35 known genera.


Overview

Like all other paleodictyopteroids, the megasecopterans had sucking mouthparts. The suctorial mouth parts were probably used to pierce plant casings and extract high-quality plant materials, such as spores and pollen. Unlike some earlier insects, megasecopterans bore two pairs of wings, which were nearly of the same size. The wings probably were held horizontally, as in
dragonflies A dragonfly is a flying insect belonging to the infraorder Anisoptera below the order Odonata. About 3,000 extant species of dragonflies are known. Most are tropical, with fewer species in temperate regions. Loss of wetland habitat threate ...
(Odonata, Anisoptera). The wing bases tend to be very slender and petiolated, as in damselflies (Odonata, Zygoptera). The body was usually long and thin, although the genus '' Protohymen'' was rather stouter and shorter than a typical megasecopteran. Another distinctive feature was the presence of a number of fine processes projecting from the body, which in some cases could be longer than the body itself, forming long fringes on the insect's underside. During their relatively brief period of existence, the Megasecoptera were rather successful. It has been estimated that this insect order accounted for 50% of the insect biomass in some locations, but the available evidence might be misleading..


References


Sources

Palaeos.com
Extinct insect orders Pennsylvanian first appearances Permian extinctions Taxa named by Charles Jules Edmée Brongniart Palaeodictyopteroidea {{paleo-insect-stub