Neoptera (

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

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

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s, specifically those that can flex their wings over their

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

s. This is in contrast with the more basal orders 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 Neopte ...

" 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 The Pterygota ( grc, πτερυγωτός, pterugōtós, winged) are a subclass of insects that includes the winged insects. It also includes insect orders that are secondarily wingless (that is, insect groups whose ancestors once had wings b ...

*division

**order

Odonata Odonata is an order of flying insects that includes the dragonflies and damselflies. Members of the group first appeared during the Triassic, though members of their total group, Odonatoptera, first appeared in Late Carboniferous. The two comm ...

**order Agnatha (correct name: Ephemeroptera) **†order Dictyoneuridea **†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 very large to gigantic insects, informally called griffinflies. The order was formerly named Protodonata, the "proto-Odonata", for their similar appearance and supposed relation to modern Odonata (damselflies ...

**†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 mo ...

*division Neoptera **superorder

Endopterygota Endopterygota (from Ancient Greek ''endon'' 'inner' + ''pterón'' 'wing' + New Latin ''-ota'' 'having'), also known as Holometabola, is a superorder of insects within the infraclass Neoptera that go through distinctive larval, pupal, and adult s ...

**subdivision

Polyneoptera The cohort Polyneoptera is a proposed taxonomic ranking for the Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets, etc.) and all other Neopteran insects believed to be more closely related to Orthoptera than to any other insect orders. These winged insects, no ...

***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 – grassho ...

****order Plecoptera ****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 forcep-like pincers on their abdomen, and membranous wings folded ...

****order

Embioptera The order (biology), order Embioptera, commonly known as webspinners or footspinners, are a small group of mostly Tropics, tropical and Subtropics, subtropical insects, classified under the Subclass (biology), subclass Pterygota. The order has ...

****order Phasmatodea ***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 o ...

) ****order

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

****order

Mantodea Mantises are an order (Mantodea) of insects that contains over 2,400 species in about 460 genera in 33 families. The largest family is the Mantidae ("mantids"). Mantises are distributed worldwide in temperate and tropical habitats. They ha ...

***subdivision

Paraneoptera Paraneoptera or Acercaria is a superorder of insects which includes lice ( bark lice and true lice), thrips, and hemipterans, the true bugs. It also includes the extinct order Permopsocida, known from fossils dating from the Early Permian to t ...

****order

Hemiptera Hemiptera (; ) is an order (biology), order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising over 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, Reduviidae, assassin bugs, Cimex, bed bugs, and shield bugs. ...

*****suborder Phytophtires (correct name: Plantisuga) *****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 ot ...

*****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 ...

****subdivision Oligoneoptera The order

Thysanoptera Thrips (order Thysanoptera) are minute (mostly long or less), slender insects with fringed wings and unique asymmetrical mouthparts. Different thrips species feed mostly on plants by puncturing and sucking up the contents, although a few 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 filiaments and a subimago stage. Genetically the clade is supported by similarities in the ...

Börner 1909 ***

Fabricius 1793 *** Neoptera Martynov 1923

Phylogeny

The phylogeny of Neoptera is shown in the

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

, not fully resolved, according to Kluge 2004, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2019, 2020 using morphological characteristics according to the principles of what he calls cladoendesis. Further material from Kluge is available at
Tegminoptera & Calyptroptera 2013Tetrastigmoptera 2019
This does not agree with the molecular phylogeny of e.g. Song et al 2016 for the

, who include Zoraptera in that clade, nor e.g. with Kjer et al 2016 for the

, who offer a fully-resolved tree for that clade.

References

External links

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