Winged and Once-winged Insects
Pterygota
Pterygota ( terrə-GOH-tə Ancient Greek: πτερυγωτός, romanized: pterugōtós, lit. 'winged') is a subclass of insects that includes all winged insects and groups which lost them secondarily.
Pterygota group comprises 99.9% of all insects. The orders not included are the Archaeognatha (jumping bristletails) and the Zygentoma (silverfishes and firebrats), two primitively wingless insect orders. Unlike Archaeognatha and Zygentoma, the pterygotes do not have styli or vesicles on their abdomen (also absent in some zygentomans), and with the exception of the majority of mayflies, are also missing the median terminal filament which is present in the ancestrally wingless insects.
25 branches of this subclass, most-observed first
Butterflies and Moths
orderLepidoptera
Beetles
orderColeoptera
Ants, Bees, Wasps, and Sawflies
orderHymenoptera
True Bugs, Hoppers, Aphids, and allies
orderHemiptera
Flies
orderDiptera
Dragonflies and Damselflies
orderOdonata
Grasshoppers, Crickets, and Katydids
orderOrthoptera
Mantises
orderMantodea
Antlions, Lacewings, and Allies
orderNeuroptera
Cockroaches and Termites
orderBlattodea
Caddisflies
orderTrichoptera
Mayflies
orderEphemeroptera
Stick Insects
orderPhasmida
Earwigs
orderDermaptera
Bark Lice, Book Lice, and Parasitic Lice
orderPsocodea
Stoneflies
orderPlecoptera
Alderflies, Dobsonflies, and Fishflies
orderMegaloptera
Scorpionflies, Hangingflies, and Allies
orderMecoptera
Thrips
orderThysanoptera
Snakeflies
orderRaphidioptera
Webspinners
orderEmbioptera
Fleas
orderSiphonaptera
Twisted-wing Insects
orderStrepsiptera
Ice Crawlers and Heelwalkers
orderNotoptera
Angel Insects
orderZoraptera
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Pterygota in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 184884.