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Embioptera
The order Embioptera, commonly known as webspinners or footspinners, are a small group of mostly tropical and subtropical insects, classified under the subclass Pterygota. The order has also been called Embiodea or Embiidina. More than 400 species in 11 families have been described, the oldest known fossils of the group being from the mid-Jurassic. Species are very similar in appearance, having long, flexible bodies, short legs, and only males having wings.
Webspinners are gregarious, living subsocially in galleries of fine silk which they spin from glands on their forelegs. Members of these colonies are often related females and their offspring; adult males do not feed and die soon after mating. Males of some species have wings and are able to disperse, whereas the females remain near where they were hatched. Newly mated females may vacate the colony and establish a new one nearby. Others may emerge to search for a new food source to which the galleries can be extended, but in general, the insects rarely venture from their galleries.
The name Embioptera ("lively wings") comes from Greek εμβιος (embios), meaning "lively", and πτερον (pteron), meaning "wing", a name that has not been considered to be particularly descriptive for this group of fliers, perhaps instead referring to their remarkable speed of movement both forward and backward. The common name webspinner comes from the insects' unique tarsi on their front legs, which produce multiple strands of silk. They use the silk to make web-like galleries in which they live.
Early entomologists considered the webspinners to be a group within the termites or the neuropterans and a variety of group names have been suggested including Adenopoda, Embidaria, Embiaria, and Aetioptera. In 1909 Günther Enderlein used the name Embiidina which was used widely for a while. Edward S. Ross suggested a new name, Embiomorpha in 2007. The currently most-widely accepted ordinal name is Embioptera, suggested by Arthur Shipley in 1904.
Fossils of webspinners are rare. The group probably first appeared during the Jurassic; the oldest known, Sinembia rossi and Juraembia ningchengensis, both in a new family Sinembiidae created for them, are from the Middle Jurassic of Inner Mongolia, and were described in 2009. The female of J. ningchengensis had wings, supporting Ross's proposal that both sexes of ancestral Embioptera were winged. Species such as Atmetoclothoda orthotenes, possibly the first fossil member of the Clothodidae to be discovered, sometimes thought to be a "primitive" family, have been found in mid-Cretaceous amber from northern Myanmar. Litoclostes delicatus (Oligotomidae) has been found in the same locality. The largest number of fossils have been found in mid-Eocene Baltic amber and early-Miocene Dominican amber. Flattened compression fossils that have been interpreted as being webspinners have been found from the Eocene/Oligocene shales of Florissant, Colorado.
Over 400 embiopteran species in 11 families have been described worldwide, the largest proportion of which inhabit tropical regions. It is estimated that there may be around 2000 species extant today.
The external phylogeny of Embioptera has been debated, with the polyneopteran order controversially classed in 2007 as a sister group to both Zoraptera (angel insects) and Phasmatodea (stick insects). The position of the Embioptera within the Polyneoptera suggested by a phylogenetic analysis carried out in 2012 by Miller et al., combining morphological and molecular evidence, is shown in the cladogram.
The internal phylogeny of the group is not yet fully resolved. Miller et al.'s phylogenetic analysis examined 96 morphological characters and 5 genes for 82 species across the order. Four families were found to be robustly monophyletic in whatever way the phylogeny was analysed (parsimony, maximum likelihood, or Bayesian): Clothodidae, Anisembiidae, Oligotomidae, and Teratembiidae. The Embiidae, Scelembiidae, and Australembiidae remain monophyletic in one or more of the three analyses, but are broken up in others, so their status remains uncertain. Either the Clothodidae (under parsimony analysis) or Australembiidae (under Bayesian analysis) is the sister taxon to the remaining Embioptera taxa, so no single phylogenetic tree can be taken as definitive from this work.
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Embioptera
The order Embioptera, commonly known as webspinners or footspinners, are a small group of mostly tropical and subtropical insects, classified under the subclass Pterygota. The order has also been called Embiodea or Embiidina. More than 400 species in 11 families have been described, the oldest known fossils of the group being from the mid-Jurassic. Species are very similar in appearance, having long, flexible bodies, short legs, and only males having wings.
Webspinners are gregarious, living subsocially in galleries of fine silk which they spin from glands on their forelegs. Members of these colonies are often related females and their offspring; adult males do not feed and die soon after mating. Males of some species have wings and are able to disperse, whereas the females remain near where they were hatched. Newly mated females may vacate the colony and establish a new one nearby. Others may emerge to search for a new food source to which the galleries can be extended, but in general, the insects rarely venture from their galleries.
The name Embioptera ("lively wings") comes from Greek εμβιος (embios), meaning "lively", and πτερον (pteron), meaning "wing", a name that has not been considered to be particularly descriptive for this group of fliers, perhaps instead referring to their remarkable speed of movement both forward and backward. The common name webspinner comes from the insects' unique tarsi on their front legs, which produce multiple strands of silk. They use the silk to make web-like galleries in which they live.
Early entomologists considered the webspinners to be a group within the termites or the neuropterans and a variety of group names have been suggested including Adenopoda, Embidaria, Embiaria, and Aetioptera. In 1909 Günther Enderlein used the name Embiidina which was used widely for a while. Edward S. Ross suggested a new name, Embiomorpha in 2007. The currently most-widely accepted ordinal name is Embioptera, suggested by Arthur Shipley in 1904.
Fossils of webspinners are rare. The group probably first appeared during the Jurassic; the oldest known, Sinembia rossi and Juraembia ningchengensis, both in a new family Sinembiidae created for them, are from the Middle Jurassic of Inner Mongolia, and were described in 2009. The female of J. ningchengensis had wings, supporting Ross's proposal that both sexes of ancestral Embioptera were winged. Species such as Atmetoclothoda orthotenes, possibly the first fossil member of the Clothodidae to be discovered, sometimes thought to be a "primitive" family, have been found in mid-Cretaceous amber from northern Myanmar. Litoclostes delicatus (Oligotomidae) has been found in the same locality. The largest number of fossils have been found in mid-Eocene Baltic amber and early-Miocene Dominican amber. Flattened compression fossils that have been interpreted as being webspinners have been found from the Eocene/Oligocene shales of Florissant, Colorado.
Over 400 embiopteran species in 11 families have been described worldwide, the largest proportion of which inhabit tropical regions. It is estimated that there may be around 2000 species extant today.
The external phylogeny of Embioptera has been debated, with the polyneopteran order controversially classed in 2007 as a sister group to both Zoraptera (angel insects) and Phasmatodea (stick insects). The position of the Embioptera within the Polyneoptera suggested by a phylogenetic analysis carried out in 2012 by Miller et al., combining morphological and molecular evidence, is shown in the cladogram.
The internal phylogeny of the group is not yet fully resolved. Miller et al.'s phylogenetic analysis examined 96 morphological characters and 5 genes for 82 species across the order. Four families were found to be robustly monophyletic in whatever way the phylogeny was analysed (parsimony, maximum likelihood, or Bayesian): Clothodidae, Anisembiidae, Oligotomidae, and Teratembiidae. The Embiidae, Scelembiidae, and Australembiidae remain monophyletic in one or more of the three analyses, but are broken up in others, so their status remains uncertain. Either the Clothodidae (under parsimony analysis) or Australembiidae (under Bayesian analysis) is the sister taxon to the remaining Embioptera taxa, so no single phylogenetic tree can be taken as definitive from this work.