Current status of the systematics and evolutionary biology of Grylloblattidae (Grylloblattodea)

Abstract

This year marks a century since the description of Grylloblatta campodeiformis Walker (1914) and the enigmatic insect family Grylloblattidae (Grylloblattodea 1 ). In the past decade, our understanding of the evolutionary diversification of grylloblattids has grown, giving prospect to elaborating other aspects of their biology, in particular their ecology, physiology and behaviour. Specific accomplishments include clarification and extension of grylloblattid geographic distributions (Schoville,

Comparative transcriptomics of ice‐crawlers demonstrates cold specialization constrains niche evolution in a relict lineage

“…Galloisiana paraphyletic and suggesting this may be an undescribed genus (Schoville, 2014). There is, however, disagreement about the placement of this lineage as sister to Grylloblattella + Grylloblatta (Figure 1), or sister to Galloisiana + Grylloblattina (Figure 2; Figure S2).…”

Has past climate change affected cold‐specialized species differentially through space and time?

“…Grylloblattids (Insecta: Grylloblattodea: Grylloblattidae) are montane insects (see Fig. ) that inhabit parts of eastern Asia, the United States, and Canada (Schoville, ). Species in the genus Grylloblatta Walker (), commonly called ‘ice crawlers’, are confined to western North America where they are found associated with snow in alpine talus fields, or at low elevations in caves and lava tubes that retain seasonal ice (Kamp, ; Schoville & Graening, ).…”

“…Ice crawlers prefer to forage at cold temperatures (near 0°C), and have a narrow thermal tolerance that is highly conserved across lineages (Schoville et al ., ). Due to their rarity in museum collections, and the lack of adult males for descriptive taxonomy, species descriptions have been slow (Schoville, ). However, genetic studies have found that there are many locally endemic, undescribed Grylloblatta lineages, which are recognizable based on high levels of genetic divergence and reciprocal monophyly (Jarvis & Whiting, ; Schoville & Roderick, ; Marshall & Lytle, ).…”

The Jurassic Bajanzhargalanidae (Insecta: Grylloblattida?): New genera and species, and data on postabdominal morphology

“…When mentioning 'Grylloblattidae' we refer to the crown-group only (of which only extant species are known at present; Schoville, 2014). The traditional Linnaean nomenclature will be used herein; this does not imply the consent of OB to all aspects of this procedure.…”