Mantophasmatodea: A New Insect Order with Extant Members in the Afrotropics
Klaus-D. Klass,13*
Oliver Zompro,2*
Niels P. Kristensen,1
Joachim Adis2
A new insect order, Mantophasmatodea, is described on the basis of
museum specimens of a new genus with two species: Mantophasma zephyra gen. et sp. nov. (one female from Namibia) and M. subsolana sp. nov. (one male from Tanzania). This is the first
time since 1914 that a newly described extant insect taxon has proved
unplaceable within a recognized order. Mantophasmatodeans are apterous
carnivores. Their closest phylogenetic relationships may be to
Grylloblattodea (ice-crawlers) and/or Phasmatodea (stick insects), but
the morphological evidence is ambiguous. Raptophasma Zompro
from Baltic amber is assigned to the Mantophasmatodea, revealing a
wider previous range for the lineage.
1 Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen,
Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
2 Max-Planck-Institut für Limnologie, AG
Tropenökologie, August-Thienemann-Strasse 2, D-24306 Plön,
Germany.
3 Staatliche Naturhistorische Sammlungen
Dresden, Museum für Tierkunde, Königsbrücker
Landstrasse 159, A.B. Meyer Bau, D-01109 Dresden, Germany.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
klass{at}snsd.de, zompro{at}mpil-ploen.mpg.de
