Implications of the Tympanal Hearing Organ and Ultrastructure of Chaetotaxy for the Higher Classification of Embioptera

Abstract

Several slowly evolving characters are evaluated with the main objective of reinforcing the higher classification of Embioptera. An embiopteran femoral auditory organ, described here for the first time, exhibits differences in shape and position that provide diagnostic criteria for higher taxonomic groups in the order. New characters on silk ejectors, bladders, and various types of leg setae are also discussed within a taxonomic framework. The utility of these new traits and their different conditions, for identifying monophyletic groups, was tested by a pre¬ liminary phylogenetic analysis.

Embioptera (Insecta) from Brazil: New species and a taxonomic update

“…In the study of Miller et al (2012), the three analyzed species of Chelicerca appeared also closely related to Cryptembia and Dactylocerca. As the genera Schizembia and Cryptembia, in addition to Pelorembia and Dactylocerca, appeared as non-monophyletic and their species as members of Chelicerca (Szumik et al 2019), these four genera are being confirmed and proposed as synonymous juniors of Chelicerca in this work.…”

“…Family Anisembiidae Davis, 1940 Anisembiidae has an exclusively American distribution, and it is the most diverse group of the Order with 24 genera and more than 100 species assigned at different levels of subfamilies, tribes, or groups of species (Ross 2003). However, Ross' classification does not have taxonomic and phylogenetic evidence to support it (Szumik 1996;Szumik et al 2008;Miller et al 2012), since some of the assignments were erroneously proposed, such as the creation of monotypic genera based on autapomorphic species or the definition of groups of species using geographical division as a criterion (Szumik et al 2008(Szumik et al , 2019. Although the monophyly of the family was supported in several phylogenetic analyses (e.g., Szumik 1996;Szumik et al 2008;Miller et al 2012), the inconsistency of some groupings is clear as well as the para/polyphyly of many of the proposed genera (e.g., Pelorembia Ross and Dactylocerca Ross;Szumik et al 2008: 998).…”

“…Anisembia (Chelicerca) Ross, 1940: 656, as Composition and distribution. According to Szumik (1996), Szumik et al (2008), and the last cladistical analysis of the Order (Szumik et al 2019), the genera Pelorembia, Dactylocerca, Schizembia, and Cryptembia were previously treated as probable junior synonym of Chelicerca and here these synonymies are confirmed (see below for relationships). Thus, the genus Chelicerca contains 76 species distributed from the southern United States to Argentina (Szumik 1998b(Szumik , 2001Ross 2003).…”

Phylogenomic analysis sheds light on the evolutionary pathways towards acoustic communication in Orthoptera

“…As for the sound-producing organs, vocal cords in the larynx have evolved several times within tetrapods 6 , while birds have evolved a unique organ called the syrinx 9 . As for insects, the ability to hear using tympanal ears has independently evolved at least in seven different orders (Orthoptera, Mantodea, Hemiptera, Neuroptera, Coleoptera, Lepidoptera and Diptera), involving at least 15 body locations 10 – 13 . Although the lack of tympanal ears does not necessarily mean that other insect orders cannot hear, as it has been shown that internal sensory organs can be sensitive to sound without external tympana 14 , 15 , the tympanal ears clearly enable far-field hearing over a broad frequency range and at high sensitivity 14 .…”

Earliest occurrence of Embiidae: A new genus from earliest Eocene Oise amber (Insecta: Embiodea)

“…There are well-documented Embiodea in mid-Cretaceous amber from Myanmar (Cockerell 1919;Davis 1939a;Engel & Grimaldi 2006;Engel et al 2016), early Eocene amber of the Cambay Basin (Engel et al 2011), middle Eocene amber of the Baltic region (Ross 1956), and middle Miocene amber of the Dominican Republic (Szumik 1994(Szumik , 1998Ross 2003).…”