User:Monster Iestyn/Insect systematics

Notes for improving various articles for higher-level insect groups.

Palaeoptera problem
The relationships between the three main clades of Pterygota – Odonata, Ephemeroptera and Neoptera – are currently unresolved. Three hypotheses have been proposed:

Palaeoptera hypothesis:

Metapterygota hypothesis:

Chiastomyaria hypothesis:

Exopterygota
I haven't found a source explaining what's going on here yet, but there seems to be two different definitions for this group:
 * Palaeoptera + Polyneoptera + Paraneoptera, i.e. all winged insects where wings develop outside the body (sources include ). This was also the original definition used by Sharp, 1898, except Sharp placed Mallophaga and Anoplura (chewing and sucking lice respectively) instead in "Anapterygota" (secondarily wingless insects), which also included Siphonaptera (fleas).
 * Polyneoptera + Paraneoptera, i.e. A division of Neoptera where wings develop outside the body.

To put it in other words, sometimes Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) and Ephemeroptera (mayflies) are included in Exopterygota, and sometimes they are not...

Also, what is the source for "Hemipterodea" being an alternative name for Exopterygota? BugGuide is the only other source I've found so far definitely making the link, BUT they may have got it from Wikipedia which is really bad. (Edit: I now believe that "Hemipterodea" was mistakenly linked with Exopterygota all the way back in 2005, and it was actually meant to be a synonym of Paraneoptera all along)

Polyneoptera
One of the major groups of Neoptera.

Also known as 'lower Neoptera'

has incomplete metamorphosis (Polyneoptera was formerly part of Exopterygota)

evidence according to Kjer et al. (2016): tegmina, enlarged anal field (vannus) of hind wing [see Insect wing], euplantulae

'Kristensen's comb' refers to the polytomy of Kristensen (1981), in which a polytomy is given for the "lower Neoptera" (= most of Polyneoptera, with Zoraptera placed in Paraneoptera)

Proposed clades in Polyneoptera:
 * Dictyoptera (= Blattodea [including Isoptera] + Mantodea] [supported in consensus according to Kjer et al. (2016)]
 * Eukinolabia (= Embioptera + Phasmatodea)
 * Haplocercata (= Dermaptera + Zoraptera)
 * Mystroptera (= Embioptera  +  Zoraptera) [rejected by Letsch & Simon (2013)]
 * Paurometabola (= Polyneoptera excluding Plecoptera) [strongly rejected according to Kjer et al. (2016)]
 * Orthopterida (= Orthoptera  +  Phasmatodea) [rejected by Letsch & Simon (2013)]
 * Xenonomia (= Grylloblattodea + Mantophasmatodea) [= Notoptera] [supported in consensus according to Kjer et al. (2016)]

Kjer et al. (2016) phylogeny
Full phylogeny (Figure 5):

Hexapods only (with experimental coloring):

Paoliida
Extinct group of insects from the Palaeozoic. Historically their position and composition was controversial, but recent studies have resolved it as the sister group to Dictyoptera.

Alternatively it has been placed in its own superorder Paoliidea in infraclass Gryllones (= Polyneoptera). (I'm assuming this isn't widely accepted, given the use of a different (Russian?) insect classification and nomenclature based on Rasnitsyn & Quicke (2002)'s History of Insects, where e.g. Scarabaeona = Pterygota, Scarabaeones = all winged insects except Gryllones (= Neoptera + Palaeoptera).)

Sroka et al. (2015) phylogeny
Full phylogeny (Figure 11):

Coleoptera phylogeny
Phylogeny based on Boudinot et al. (2022) (Figure 8?): and Goczał & Beutel (2023)

(See also Figure 2 in https://doi.org/10.1111/syen.12623 )

Chrysomeloidea phylogeny
From Haddad et al. (2018) (nuclear protein coding genes):

From Nie et al. (2020) (mitochondrial genome):