Amphiesmenoptera

Amphiesmenoptera

Celastrina argiolus (Lepidoptera)

Micropterna sequax (Trichoptera)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Superorder:	Panorpida
(unranked):	Amphiesmenoptera Hennig, 1969
Orders
Trichoptera Annulipalpia Integripalpia Spicipalpia †Eocoronidae †Eocorona Lepidoptera Aglossata †Bombycites Glossata Heterobathmiina †Karataunia †Phylledestes †Protolepis Zeugloptera

Amphiesmenoptera is an insect superorder, established by Willi Hennig in his revision of insect taxonomy for two sister orders: Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) and Trichoptera (caddisflies).

Trichoptera and Lepidoptera share a number of derived characters (synapomorphies) which prove their common descent:

Females, rather than males, are heterogametic (i.e. their sex chromosomes differ).
Dense setae are present the wings (modified into scales in Lepidoptera).
There is a particular venation pattern on the forewings (the double-looped anal veins).
Larvae have mouth structures and glands to make and manipulate silk.^[1]

Thus the two sister orders are grouped into the Amphiesmenoptera. The group probably evolved in the Jurassic, diverging from the extinct Necrotaulidae.^[1] Lepidoptera differ from the Trichoptera in several features, including wing venation, form of the scales on the wings, loss of the cerci, loss of an ocellus, and changes to the legs.^[1]

Amphiesmenoptera are thought to be the sister group of Antliophora, a proposed superorder comprising Diptera (flies), Siphonaptera (fleas) and Mecoptera (scorpionflies). Together, Amphiesmenoptera and Antliophora compose the group Mecopterida.^[2]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c D. Grimaldi & M. S. Engel (2005). Evolution of the Insects. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-82149-5.
^ M. F. Whiting, J. C. Carpenter, Q. D. Wheeler & W. C. Wheeler (March 1997). "The Strepsiptera problem: phylogeny of the holometabolous insect orders inferred from 18S and 28S ribosomal DNA sequences and morphology". Systematic Biology 46 (1): 1–68. PMID 11975347. http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/46/1/1.