Epiprocta, also called Epiproctophora, is one of the two extant

suborder Order () is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and recognized ...

s of the

Odonata Odonata is an order of predatory flying insects that includes the dragonflies and damselflies (as well as the '' Epiophlebia'' damsel-dragonflies). The two major groups are distinguished with dragonflies (Anisoptera) usually being bulkier with ...

, which contains living

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 ...

(Anisoptera), as well as Epiophlebioptera, which has a single known living genus '' Epiophlebia.''

Crown group In phylogenetics, the crown group or crown assemblage is a collection of species composed of the living representatives of the collection, the most recent common ancestor of the collection, and all descendants of the most recent common ancestor ...

Epiprocta first appeared during the

Early Jurassic The Early Jurassic Epoch (geology), Epoch (in chronostratigraphy corresponding to the Lower Jurassic series (stratigraphy), Series) is the earliest of three epochs of the Jurassic Period. The Early Jurassic starts immediately after the Triassic� ...

. It was proposed in 1992 by Heinrich Lohmann to accommodate the inclusion of the Anisozygoptera. The latter has been shown to be not a natural suborder, but rather a

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

collection of lineages, so it has been combined with the previous suborder

Anisoptera 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 threatens ...

, the well-known dragonflies, into the Epiprocta. The old suborder Anisoptera is proposed to become an

infraorder Order () is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between Family_(biology), family and Class_(biology), class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classific ...

within the Epiprocta, whereas the "anisozygopterans" included here form the infraorder Epiophlebioptera. In Lohmann's original circumscription of the Epiprocta he also included the Tarsophlebiidae in it but Rehn (2003) placed it among the Zygoptera. Cladogram of Epiprocta after Rehn et al. 2003: Epiproctophora is used as the clade containing all odonatans living and extinct more closely related to living epiproctans than to damselflies. Cladogram of Odonata including Epiproctophora by Deregnaucourt et al. 2023.

References

External links

* * Extant Early Jurassic first appearances Insect suborders {{insect-stub