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24 Orders of Insects: Mantophasmatodea

Photo of a Mantophasmatodea
Mantophasma zephyra (Mantophasmatodea). [Photo PE Bragg, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons]

 

Cladogram highlighting Mantophasmatodea
Cladogram highlighting Mantophasmatodea. Adapted from Gullan, PJ & Cranston PS (2014). The insects: an outline of entomology (5th ed.). Wiley Blackwell.

Order Mantophasmatodea

Mantophasmatodea

  • common name: heelwalkers; so named because they hold the distal tarsomere up off the ground when walking
  • a newly described order in 2002; name is a combination of Mantodea and Phasmatodea to reflect its superficial similarity to these two orders
  • only six to eight species worldwide; found only in south-west Africa including Namibia and Tanzania.
  • smallest order of insects; most closely related to Grylloblattodea
  • most are nocturnal predators; hide in grass and rock crevices

Characteristics of Mantophasmatodea

Adults

  • Small to medium (11-25mm), somewhat cylindrical body shape 
  • Hypognathous, mandibulate; compound eyes large, ocelli absent; antennae long, multi-segmented
  •  wingless; fore and mid-legs have bristles and spines
  • cerci small in female but prominent in male

Immatures

  • Immature stages (nymphs) resemble small adults

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