The Thysanura or three pronged bristle-tails, are the linking order between the Apterygota (primarily wingless insects) and the Pterygota (primarily winged insects), and contain some of the most primitve of insects known to man i.e., the Thysanura are most like what we think the first insects looked like. The Protura, Diplura and Collembola representing other branches from a shared arthropodean ancestor, which along with the Archeognatha ( here part of the Thysanura) are considered part of the 'Hexapoda' but not part of the 'Insecta' the Hexapoda is a separate class of arthopods including the smaller group the 'Insecta' which contains the rest of what we think of as 'The Insects' in classification schemes (see The Tree of Life.
Flightless insects with ectognathous mouth parts (externally visible as compared to entognathous mouth parts of the Diplura, Protura and Collembola which are sunk into the head and thus not imediately visible). They have long filiform antennae with as many as, or more than 30 segments. The abdomen has eleven segments generally ending in three 'tails' consisting of two cerci and a telson. They are commonly represented by the Silverfish and the firebrats often found in houses and bakeries respectively.
They spend most of their life concealed beneath or within stones, wood, houses, the soil etc., and they mostly feed on dead plant material and fungal hyphae. There are more than 720 species in the world 9 of which have been found in the British Isles.
There are a three lovelly paintings of some thysanura done by A.T.Hollick in the 1860's in John Lubbock's 1871 monograph on the Collembola and Thysanura,
Machilis maritima36k jpg
Lepisma saccharina 37k jpg
Machilis polypoda 30k jpg
The Thysanura are divided into two Superfamilies, the Machiloidea with only one mandibular articulation (sometimes known as the Archeognatha) which contains two families, and the Lepismatoidea with two mandibular articulations (the Pterypgote insects all possess two mandibular articulations) which contains three families.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
| These pages are here free for you to use, I would like to keep them that way, however making and running this site, and the other sites I am currently making or have made, on Birds, Mammals, Insects and Fish and Bacteria as well as all the other invertebrates costs money. There are several simple ways you can help. The first is by using the search engine here, that way you make me 2 or 3 cents a time, not a lot but it adds up.
Or you could buy a copy of my recently published book of poetry. It is called Poetry for All the Family, which describes it perfectly. Although I do publish poetry in the specialised poetry magazines the poetry in this book is specifically designed to be enjoyed by people of every age. Follow the link for more information. It is not expensive and should be thoroughly enjoyable, so if you like it please tell people about it, or better still give it to someone as a present for Christmas of a birthday. |
|||
|
|||
|
|||
