Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 April 2009
The question of the origin of the Aphaniptera has been, so far, considered obscure. It is for the supposed complete absence of wings in all stages that these insects have been thought by some authors to constitute a very sharply defined order having no close connection with any other group of insects (Imms, 1934, p. 688; Patton and Cragg, 1913, p. 434). This total absence of wings in an order of insects which has a complete metamorphosis would have given this group a very anomalous position in the insect world, as there is no holometabolous insect known which does not possess wings in any stage of its existence. For this reason Packard's conclusion (1894, p. 331) ‘Indeed, the three-fold division of the thorax referred to should have a priori forbidden the thought of rudimentary wings’, and Patton and Cragg's statement (1913, p. 434) ‘They bear no recognizable traces of wings, and the structure of the thorax makes it very doubtful if they are descended from winged forms at all’, can scarcely be accepted.