Neoptera (

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

''néos'' ("new") + ''pterón'' ("wing")) is a classification group that includes most orders of the winged

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, ...

s, specifically those that can flex their wings over their

abdomen The abdomen (colloquially called the gut, belly, tummy, midriff, tucky, or stomach) is the front part of the torso between the thorax (chest) and pelvis in humans and in other vertebrates. The area occupied by the abdomen is called the abdominal ...

s. This is in contrast with the more basal

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

s of winged insects (the "

Palaeoptera The name Palaeoptera (from Greek ( 'old') + ( 'wing')) has been traditionally applied to those ancestral groups of winged insects (most of them extinct) that lacked the ability to fold the wings back over the abdomen as characterizes the Neopt ...

" assemblage), which are unable to flex their wings in this way.

Classification

The taxon Neoptera was proposed by А.М. Martynov in 1923 and 1924, in the following classification:

Pterygota Pterygota ( ) is a subclass of insects that includes all winged insects and groups who lost them secondarily. Pterygota group comprises 99.9% of all insects. The orders not included are the Archaeognatha (jumping bristletails) and the Zygent ...

*division

**order

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 ...

**order Agnatha (correct name: Ephemeroptera) **†order

Dictyoneuridea The Palaeodictyopteroidea or Paleodictyopterida are an extinct superorder of Palaeozoic beaked insects, characterised by unique mouthparts consisting of 5 stylets. They represent the first important terrestrial herbivores, and the first major gro ...

**†order

Megasecoptera Megasecoptera is a Paleozoic insect 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 proba ...

**†order

Meganisoptera Meganisoptera is an extinct order of large dragonfly-like insects, informally known as griffenflies or (incorrectly) as giant dragonflies. The order was formerly named Protodonata, the "proto-Odonata", for their similar appearance and supposed r ...

**†order

Protephemeroidea Neoptera (Ancient Greek ''néos'' ("new") + ''pterón'' ("wing")) is a classification group that includes most orders of the winged insects, specifically those that can flex their wings over their abdomens. This is in contrast with the more basal ...

*division Neoptera **superorder

Endopterygota Holometabola (from Ancient Greek "complete" + "change"), also known as Endopterygota (from "inner" + "wing" + Neo-Latin "-having"), is a supra- ordinal clade of insects within the infraclass Neoptera that go through distinctive larval, pupal ...

***order

Coleoptera Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...

***order

Strepsiptera The Strepsiptera () are an order of insects with eleven extant families that include about 600 described species. They are endoparasites of other insects, such as bees, wasps, leafhoppers, Zygentoma, silverfish, and cockroaches. Females of most s ...

***order

Neuroptera The insect order (biology), order Neuroptera, or net-winged insects, includes the lacewings, mantidflies, antlions, and their relatives. The order consists of some 6,000 species. Neuroptera is grouped together with the Megaloptera (alderflies, f ...

***order

Raphidioptera Snakeflies are a group of predatory insects comprising the order (biology), order Raphidioptera with two extant families: Raphidiidae and Inocelliidae, consisting of roughly 260 species. In the past, the group had a much wider distribution than i ...

***order

Megaloptera Megaloptera is an order of insects. It contains the alderflies, dobsonflies and fishflies, and there are about 300 known species. The order's name comes from Ancient Greek, from ''mega-'' (μέγα-) "large" + ''pteryx'' (πτέρυξ) "wi ...

***order

Diptera Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advance ...

***order

Mecoptera Mecoptera (from the Greek language, Greek: ''mecos'' = "long", ''ptera'' = "wings") is an Order (biology), order of insects in the superorder Holometabola with about six hundred species in nine Family (biology), families worldwide. Mecopterans a ...

***order

Trichoptera The caddisflies (order Trichoptera) are a group of insects with aquatic larvae and terrestrial adults. There are approximately 14,500 described species, most of which can be divided into the suborders Integripalpia and Annulipalpia on the basis ...

***order

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organ ...

***order

Hymenoptera Hymenoptera is a large order of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are parasitic. Females typi ...

**subdivision

Polyneoptera The cohort Polyneoptera is one of the major groups of winged insects, comprising the Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets, etc.) and all other neopteran insects believed to be more closely related to Orthoptera than to any other insect orders. Th ...

***superorder Orthopteroidea (Anartioptera) ****order

Orthoptera Orthoptera () is an order of insects that comprises the grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets, including closely related insects, such as the bush crickets or katydids and wētā. The order is subdivided into two suborders: Caelifera – gras ...

****order

Plecoptera Plecoptera is an order (biology), order of insects commonly known as stoneflies. Some 3,500 species are described worldwide, with new species still being discovered. Stoneflies are found worldwide, except Antarctica. Stoneflies are believed to b ...

****order

Dermaptera Earwigs make up the insect order Dermaptera. With about 2,000 species in 12 families, they are one of the smaller insect orders. Earwigs have characteristic cerci, a pair of forceps-like pincers on their abdomen, and membranous wings folde ...

****order

Embioptera The order Embioptera, commonly known as webspinners or footspinners, are a small group of mostly tropical and subtropical insects, classified under the subclass Pterygota. The order has also been called Embiodea or Embiidina. More than 400 spe ...

****order

Phasmatodea The Phasmatodea (also known as Phasmida or Phasmatoptera) are an Order (biology), order of insects whose members are variously known as stick insects, stick bugs, walkingsticks, stick animals, or bug sticks. They are also occasionally referred ...

***superorder Blattopteroidea (senior name: Pan

dictyoptera Dictyoptera (from Greek δίκτυον ''diktyon'' "net" and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing") is an insect superorder that includes two extant orders of polyneopterous insects: the order Blattodea (termites and cockroaches together) and the or ...

) ****order

Blattodea Blattodea is an order (biology), order of insects that contains cockroaches and termites. Formerly, termites were considered a separate order, Isoptera, but genetics, genetic and molecular evidence suggests they evolved from within the cockroach ...

****order

Mantodea Mantises are an Order (biology), order (Mantodea) of insects that contains List of mantis genera and species, over 2,400 species in about 460 genera in 33 families. The largest family is the Mantidae ("mantids") ...

***subdivision

Paraneoptera Paraneoptera or Acercaria is a Order (biology), superorder of insects which includes Psocodea, lice (Psocoptera, bark lice and Louse, true lice), thrips, and hemipterans, the true bugs. It also includes the extinct order Permopsocida, known from ...

****order

Hemiptera Hemiptera (; ) is an order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising more than 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, assassin bugs, bed bugs, and shield bugs. They range in size from ...

*****suborder

Auchenorrhyncha The Auchenorrhyncha suborder of the Hemiptera contains most of the familiar members of what was called the "Homoptera" – groups such as cicadas, leafhoppers, treehoppers, planthoppers, and spittlebugs. The aphids and scale insects are the o ...

*****suborder

Coleorrhyncha Coleorrhyncha or Peloridiomorpha, also known as moss bugs or beetle bugs, are a suborder of Hemiptera and represent an ancient lineage of moss-feeding insects. They show some similarities to the Heteroptera but have been considered distinct. It h ...

*****suborder

Heteroptera The Heteroptera are a group of about 40,000 species of insects in the order Hemiptera. They are sometimes called "true bugs", though that name more commonly refers to the Hemiptera as a whole. "Typical bugs" might be used as a more unequivocal al ...

*****suborder

Sternorrhyncha The Sternorrhyncha suborder of the Hemiptera contains the aphids, whitefly, whiteflies, and scale insects, groups which were traditionally included in the now-obsolete order "Homoptera". The name "Sternorrhyncha" refers to the rearward position of ...

****subdivision Oligoneoptera The order

Thysanoptera Thrips (order Thysanoptera) are minute (mostly long or less), slender insects with fringed wings and unique asymmetrical mouthparts. Entomologists have described approximately 7,700 species. They fly only weakly and their feathery wings are ...

originally had uncertain systematic position, and later was attributed to Paraneoptera. Other classifications were proposed, subordinating Neoptera either directly to Pterygota (as in Martynov's classification), or to Metapterygota: *

Gegenbaur 1878 ** Ephemeroptera Hyatt & Arms 1890 **

Metapterygota Metapterygota is a clade of winged insects containing order Odonata and Infraclass Neoptera. They share morphological characteristics of a loss of caudal filaments and a subimago stage. Genetically the clade is supported by similarities in the mi ...

Börner 1909 ***

Fabricius 1793 *** Neoptera Martynov 1923

Phylogeny

The phylogeny of Neoptera is shown in the

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ...

, using the molecular phylogeny of Wipfler et al. 2019 for the

, Johnson et al 2018 for the

(where

Psocomorpha Psocomorpha is a suborder of barklice, booklice, and parasitic lice in the order (biology), order Psocodea (formerly Psocoptera). There are more than 20 families and 5,300 described species in Psocomorpha. Phylogeny The below cladogram of Psoco ...

contains

Phthiraptera Louse (: lice) is the common name for any member of the infraorder Phthiraptera, which contains nearly 5,000 species of wingless parasitic insects. Phthiraptera was previously recognized as an order, until a 2021 genetic study determined that ...

), and Kjer et al 2016 for the

Holometabola Holometabola (from Ancient Greek "complete" + "change"), also known as Endopterygota (from "inner" + "wing" + Neo-Latin "-having"), is a supra-order (biology), ordinal clade of insects within the infraclass Neoptera that go through distincti ...

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q23005 Insect taxonomy Extant Pennsylvanian first appearances