Overview
A taxonomic class.
Taxonomy
The Class Entognatha is further organized into finer groupings including:
- Order (3): Collembola · Diplura · Protura
- Species: ZipcodeZoo has pages for 3,105 species and subspecies in the Class Entognatha.
Orders
Collembola
Springtails (Collembola) form the largest of the three lineages of modern hexapods that are no longer considered insects (the other two are the Protura and Diplura). Though the three orders are sometimes grouped together in a class called Entognatha because they have internal mouthparts, they do not appear to be more closely related to one another than they all are to insects, which have external mouthparts. [more]
Diplura
The order Diplura is one of the four groups of hexapods, alongside insects, springtails and Protura. They are sometimes called "two-pronged bristletails". Around 800 species have been described, of which around 70 occur in North America, 12 in Great Britain and two in Australia. [more]
Protura
The Protura, or proturans, and sometimes nicknamed coneheads are an order of hexapods previously regarded as insects, and sometimes treated as a class in their own right. There is some evidence that the Protura are basal to all other hexapods, although the monophyly of hexapoda is unsettled. They are very small (<2 mm long) soil-dwelling animals and are unique among hexapods for showing anamorphic development, whereby body segments are added during moults. Szeptycki (2007) lists a total of 731 described species worldwide, in seven families, nearly 300 of which are contained in a single genus, Eosentomon. [more]
At least 774 species and subspecies belong to the Order Protura.
More info about the Order Protura may be found here.
Sources
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