Alienoptera

Alienoptera is an extinct order of insects. It is part of Dictyoptera making it closely related to cockroaches and mantises. The majority of known members of the group are known from the Cenomanian aged Burmese amber from Myanmar; however, the group also includes two genera (Apiblatta and Vcelesvab) from the Albian Crato Formation (Brazil), as well as two genera (Chimaeroblattina and Grant) from the middle Eocene Green River Formation (Colorado, United States). Some taxa are have been suggested mimics of various hymenopterans, including bees and ants. However this was mostly rejected in another study. Some taxa were probably predators adapted to moving through dense foliage.

Vršanský et al. (2018) did not consider Alienoptera to be a separate insect order; instead, the authors assigned the family Alienopteridae to the order Blattaria and to the superfamily Umenocoleoidea as sister to Umenocoleidae. However, the term Alienoptera was retained by Wipfler et al. (2019).

References

Category:Extinct insect orders