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. They were formerly grouped together with the Palaeoptera and Paraneoptera as the Hemimetabola or Exopterygota on the grounds that they have no pupa, the wings gradually developing externally throughout the nymphal stages.^[2] Many members of the group have leathery forewings (tegmina) and hindwings with an enlarged anal field (vannus).

Polyneoptera
All polyneoptera extant orders: row 1: Zoraptera, Dermaptera row 2: Plecoptera, Orthoptera row 3: Grylloblattodea, Mantophasmatodea row 4: Phasmatodea, Embioptera row 5: Mantodea, Blattodea
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
(unranked):	Dicondylia
Subclass:	Pterygota
Infraclass:	Neoptera
Cohort:	Polyneoptera Martynov, 1923[1]
Orders
See text
Synonyms
Gryllones Orthoptères Orthopteroidea Orthopterodea Paurometabola Polyneopterata Plecopterodea

When Carl Linnaeus started applying binomial names to animals in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae in 1758,^[3] there were few animals included in the scheme, and consequently few groups. As more and more new species were discovered and differences recognised, the original groups proposed by Linnaeus were split up.

Originally all polyneopteran insects were in the genus Gryllus, this genus now contains a group of closely related crickets. In the scheme used by Linnaeus the genus contained crickets, grasshoppers, locusts, katydids / bush crickets (Tettigoniidae), stick insects, and praying mantises. These groups, along with the cockroaches, which Linnaeus did treat differently, are all orthopteroid insects.^[4] The newly discovered order Mantophasmatodea is also an orthopteroid order.

Taxonomy

Extant

The following extant orders are included in Polyneoptera:^[5]

• Superorder Dictyoptera
  • Order Blattodea (cockroaches and termites)
  • Order Mantodea (praying mantises)
• Order Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets, katydids)
• Order Dermaptera (earwigs)
• Order Embioptera (web-spinners)
• Order Plecoptera (stoneflies)
• Order Grylloblattodea (ice-crawlers)^{[note 1]}
• Order Mantophasmatodea (gladiators)^{[note 1]}
• Order Phasmatodea (stick and leaf insects)
• Order Zoraptera (angel insects)

Fossil

The following fossil groups are included in Polyneoptera:^[5]

• Archaeorthoptera (Orthoptera and stem-group relatives)
  • †Caloneurodea
  • †Cnemidolestodea (= Cnemidolestida)^[7][8]
  • †Geraroptera
  • †Titanoptera – Carboniferous to Triassic
  • order Incertae sedis
    • family †Cacurgidae Handlirsch, 1911
    • family †Chresmodidae Haase, 1890^[9]
    • family †Permostridulidae Béthoux, Nel, Lapeyrie & Gand, 2003
    • family †Protophasmatidae Brongniart, 1885
    • genus †Chenxiella Liu, Ren & Prokop, 2009
    • genus †Lobeatta Béthoux, 2005
    • genus †Longzhua Gu, Béthoux & Ren, 2011
    • genus †Nectoptilus Béthoux, 2005
    • genus †Sinopteron Prokop & Ren, 2007
• Stem-group Phasmatodea
  • †family Xiphopteridae Sharov 1968
  • †family Prochresmodidae Vishnyakova 1980
  • †family Aeroplanidae Tillyard 1918
  • †family Cretophasmatidae Sharov 1968
  • †family Aerophasmatidae Martynov, 1928
• Stem-group Dermaptera
  • †Protelytroptera
• †"Grylloblattida" (Stem-group Grylloblattodea?)
  • †Geinitziidae
  • †Gorochoviidae
  • †Juraperlidae
  • †Bajanzhargalanidae
  • ...
• †Eoblattida
• †Paoliida^[10]
• †Protorthoptera
• † family Magicivenidae^[11]

Phylogeny

The following cladogram is based on the molecular phylogeny of Wipfler et al. 2019:^[12]

Polyneoptera	Zoraptera (angel insects) Dermaptera (earwigs) Plecoptera (stoneflies) Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets, katydids) Grylloblattodea (ice crawlers) Mantophasmatodea (gladiators) Phasmatodea (stick insects) Embioptera (webspinners) Dictyoptera Mantodea (mantises) Blattodea (cockroaches and termites)

See also

• List of Orthopteroid genera containing species recorded in Europe
• List of orthopteroids of Korea

Notes

1. The orders Grylloblattodea and Mantophasmatodea are sometimes ranked as suborders of a single order, Notoptera.^[6]