Tridactyloidea is a

superfamily SUPERFAMILY is a database and search platform of structural and functional annotation for all proteins and genomes. It classifies amino acid sequences into known structural domains, especially into SCOP superfamilies. Domains are functional, str ...

in the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...

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 ...

. The insects are sometimes known as pygmy mole crickets but they are Caelifera and not members of the mole cricket suborder Ensifera, unlike the true mole crickets, the Gryllotalpidae. It is composed of three families that contain a total of about 50 species. Insects in this superfamily can be 4 to 9 millimeters in length and generally have short antennae and long wings. They live along the banks of bodies of water in tropical areas and are good swimmers and jumpers. Fossils of this subfamily have been found in Siberian deposits dating back to the Cretaceous.

Families

According to th
Orthoptera Species File
there are three families: *

Cylindrachetidae Sandgropers are wholly subterranean apterous insects of the family Cylindrachetidae that may grow up to 7 cm (3 in) long. Three genera are currently recognised: '' Cylindracheta'', '' Cylindraustralia'' and '' Cylindroryctes''. Like man ...

Giglio-Tos, 1914: "sandgropers" of Australia, Papua New Guinea and South America *

Ripipterygidae Ripipterygidae is a family of insects in the order Orthoptera. Members of the family are commonly known as mud crickets. Description Ripipterygids are small, often dark-colored, cricket-like orthopterans, between 3 and 14 mm in length. Th ...

Ander, 1939: "mud crickets" of central and South America *

Tridactylidae The Tridactylidae are a family in the insect order Orthoptera. They are small, mole-cricket-like insects, almost always less than long when mature. Generally they are shiny, dark or black, sometimes variegated or sandy-coloured. They commonly ...

Brullé, 1835: "pygmy mole crickets" in many (especially tropical) areas.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3539088 Caelifera Insect superfamilies Taxa named by Gaspard Auguste Brullé