Stenopelmatoidea

Stenopelmatoidea is a superfamily of insects in the order Orthoptera; in some older classifications this group was referred to as Gryllacridoidea.

Stenopelmatoidea
Stenopelmatus fuscus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Orthoptera
Suborder:	Ensifera
Infraorder:	Tettigoniidea
Superfamily:	Stenopelmatoidea Burmeister, 1838
Families
See text

Classification

The classification and constituency of Stenopelmatoidea is an ongoing source of controversy, with different authorities proposing radically different arrangements. At present, the majority of researchers appear to be mostly in consensus that Stenopelmatoidea comprises several well-separated lineages, at least three of which (Anostostomatidae, Gryllacrididae, and Stenopelmatidae) can be reasonably well-defined, and have molecular evidence that supports their recognition as monophyletic groups.^[1][2][3] At least one other authority, working exclusively with morphological characters, has instead proposed that Stenopelmatoidea contains only two lineages (Anostostomatidae and Stenopelmatidae), the latter of which not only includes Gryllacrididae as a subfamily, but also the entire superfamily Schizodactyloidea, similarly reduced to the rank of subfamily (e.g. ^[4]), a result explicitly rejected by other researchers.^[3]

In most classifications, Stenopelmatoidea consists of four families:^[5]

• Anostostomatidae – wētā, king crickets
• Cooloolidae – Cooloola monsters
• Gryllacrididae – leaf-rolling crickets
• Stenopelmatidae – Jerusalem crickets