Strepsiptera

Female Mengenilla moldryzki, from Pohl et al. (2012).

Belongs within: Holometabola.
Contains: Stylopiformia.

The Strepsiptera are a group of insects that develop as endoparasites of other insects. Adult males are free-living and non-feeding; mature females are larviform and those of Stylopidia remain within the original host.

See also: A queenage of Strepsiptera.

Characters (from Kathirithamby 1991): Endopterygote Neoptera with reduced mandibulate mouth-parts, extreme development of metathorax, reduced prothorax, and without differentiated trochanters in fore and mid legs. Adult males free living, with functional hind wings and small haltere-like fore wings. Females larviform, viviparous; usually parasitic, in puparium, and then with secondary progoneate genital apertures. Heteromorphosis during larval growth, 1st instar larvae free living and active, later instars parasitic.

<==Strepsiptera [Mengenillidia, Rhipiptera, Stylopida, Stylopoidea]
    |  i. s.: Neostylops aterrima A71
    |         Austrostylops gracilipes R35
    |         Bahiaxenos Bravo, Pohl et al. 2009 [Bahiaxenidae] BP09
    |           `--*B. relictus Bravo, Pohl et al. 2009 BP09
    |--Protoxenos [Protoxenidae] BP09
    |    `--P. janzeni Pohl, Beutel & Kinzelbach 2005 BP09
    `--+--Cretostylops engeli Grimaldi & Kathirithamby 2005 BP09
       `--+--Mengea [Mengeidae, Mengeiformia, Mengeina, Mengeoidea] BP09
          |    |--M. mengei GE05
          |    `--M. tertiaria K91
          `--+--Mengenillidae [Mengenilloidea] BP09
             |    |  i. s.: Eoxenos laboulbenei K91
             |    |--Iberoxeninae K91
             |    |--Congoxenos [Congoxeninae] K91
             |    `--Mengenilla [Mengenillinae] K91
             |         |--M. australiensis K91
             |         |--M. chobauti MHK11
             |         |--M. gracilipes K91
             |         `--M. moldryzki MW15
             `--Stylopidia [Stylopina] BP09
                  |  i. s.: Dundoxenos vilhenai A99
                  |         Bohartilla GE05 [Bohartillidae K91, Bohartilloidea]
                  |           |--B. kinzelbachi GE05
                  |           `--B. megalognatha GE05
                  |--Corioxenidae [Corioxenoidea] MHK11
                  |    |  i. s.: Uniclavinae K91
                  |    |--Corioxenos [Corioxeninae] MHK11
                  |    |    |--C. acucyrtophallus MHK11
                  |    |    `--C. antestiae K91
                  |    `--+--Blisseoxenos esaki MHK11
                  |       `--Triozocera [Triozocerinae] MHK11
                  |            `--T. papuana K91
                  `--Stylopiformia MHK11

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[A71] Askew, R. R. 1971. Parasitic Insects. Heinemann Educational Books: London.

[A99] Ax, P. 1999. Das System der Metazoa II. Ein Lehrbuch der phylogenetischen Systematik. Gustav Fisher Verlag: Stuttgart (transl. 2000. Multicellular Animals: The phylogenetic system of the Metazoa vol. 2. Springer).

[BP09] Bravo, F., H. Pohl, A. Silva-Neto & R. G. Beutel. 2009. Bahiaxenidae, a "living fossil" and a new family of Strepsiptera (Hexapoda) discovered in Brazil. Cladistics 25 (6): 614–623.

[GE05] Grimaldi, D., & M. S. Engel. 2005. Evolution of the Insects. Cambridge University Press: New York.

[K91] Kathirithamby, J. 1991. Strepsiptera. In: CSIRO. The Insects of Australia: A textbook for students and research workers 2^nd ed. vol. 2 pp. 684–695. Melbourne University Press: Carlton (Victoria).

[MW15] McKenna, D. D., A. L. Wild, K. Kanda, C. L. Bellamy, R. G. Beutel, M. S. Caterino, C. W. Farnum, D. C. Hawks, M. A. Ivie, M. L. Jameson, R. A. B. Leschen, A. E. Marvaldi, J. V. McHugh, A. F. Newton, J. A. Robertson, M. K. Thayer, M. F. Whiting, J. F. Lawrence, A. Ślipiński, D. R. Maddison & B. D. Farrell. 2015. The beetle tree of life reveals that Coleoptera survived end-Permian mass extinction to diversify during the Cretaceous terrestrial revolution. Systematic Entomology 40 (4): 835–880.

[MHK11] McMahon, D. P., A. Hayward & J. Kathirithamby. 2011. The first molecular phylogeny of Strepsiptera reveals an early burst of molecular evolution correlated with the transition to endoparasitism. PLoS One 6 (6): e21206.

[R35] Rayment, T. 1935. A Cluster of Bees: Sixty essays on the life-histories of Australian bees, with specific descriptions of over 100 new species. Endeavour Press: Sydney.