Grylloblattidae

Taxobox
name = Grylloblattodea

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regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Insecta
subclassis = Pterygota
infraclassis = Neoptera
superordo = Exopterygota
ordo = Notoptera
subordo = Grylloblattodea
familia = Grylloblattidae
familia_authority = E. M. Walker, 1914
subdivision_ranks = Genera
subdivision = "Galloisiana"
"Grylloblatta"
"Grylloblattella"
"Grylloblattina"
"Namkungia"

Grylloblattodea is a small suborder of extremophile and wingless insects that live in the cold on top of mountains, consisting of a single family, Grylloblattidae. They are commonly called grylloblattids, but are also sometimes called ice crawlers or icebugs. Their appearance evidently puzzled the scientist who discovered them; the first species named was "Grylloblatta campodeiformis", which means "It looks like a cricket, a cockroach, and a Campodea" (a kind of two-pronged bristletail). Most are nocturnal and appear to feed on detritus. They have long antennae (23-45 segments) and long cerci (5-8 segments), but no wings. Their closest living relatives are the recently-discovered Mantophasmatodea [Cameron, Stephen L.; Barker, Stephen C. & Whiting, Michael F. (2006): Mitochondrial genomics and the new insect order Mantophasmatodea. "Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution" 38: 274–279. DOI|10.1016/j.ympev.2005.09.020 (HTML abstract)] .

This suborder includes a single family with 5 genera and 25 species; it has traditionally been considered an order, but the most recent classification [Arillo, A. & M. Engel (2006) Rock Crawlers in Baltic Amber (Notoptera: Mantophasmatodea). American Museum Novitates 3539:1-10 [http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/dspace/bitstream/2246/5817/1/N3539.pdf] ] relegates the group to a suborder within the order Notoptera.

References