Tridactyloidea is a superfamily in the order Orthoptera. The insects are sometimes known as pygmy mole crickets but they are

Caelifera The Caelifera are a suborder of orthopteran insects. They include the grasshoppers and grasshopper-like insects, as well as other superfamilies classified with them: the ground-hoppers (Tetrigoidea) and pygmy mole crickets ( Tridactyloidea). ...

and not members of the mole cricket suborder

Ensifera Ensifera is a suborder of insects that includes the various types of crickets and their allies including: true crickets, camel crickets, bush crickets or katydids, grigs, weta and Cooloola monsters. This and the suborder Caelifera (grassh ...

, unlike the true mole crickets, the

Gryllotalpidae Mole crickets are members of the insect family Gryllotalpidae, in the order Orthoptera (grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets). Mole crickets are cylindrical-bodied, fossorial insects about long as adults, with small eyes and shovel-like fore ...

. 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 Giglio-Tos, 1914: "sandgropers" of Australia, Papua New Guinea and South America * Ripipterygidae Ander, 1939: "mud crickets" of central and South America * Tridactylidae Brullé, 1835: "pygmy mole crickets" in many (especially tropical) areas.

References

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