The structure of wing in the earliest Permopsocida.

Permopsocids are small acercarian insects with mouthparts specialized for sucking. They are closely related to Hemiptera and Thysanoptera. The earliest known representatives are from the Early Permian.

Thoracic and abdominal outgrowths in early pterygotes: a clue to the common ancestor of winged insects?

One of the fundamental questions in insect evolution is the origin of their wings and primary function of ancestral wing precursors. Recent phylogenomic and comparative morphological studies broadly support a terrestrial ancestor of pterygotes, but an aquatic or semiaquatic ancestor cannot be ruled out. Here new features of the branchial system of palaeodictyopteran larvae of several different instars of Katosaxoniapteron brauneri gen.

Abdominal serial homologues of wings in Paleozoic insects.

The Late Paleozoic acquisition of wings in insects represents one of the key steps in arthropod evolution. While the origin of wings has been a contentious matter for nearly two centuries, recent evolutionary developmental studies suggest either the participation of both tergal and pleural tissues in the formation of wings or wings originated from exites of the most proximal leg podite incorporated into the insect body wall. The so-called "dual hypothesis" for wing origins finds support from studies of embryology, evo-devo, and genomics, although the degree of the presumed contribution from tergal and pleural tissues differ.

Evidence for wing development in the Late Palaeozoic Palaeodictyoptera revisited.

The numerous fossil specimens described as consecutive series of different larval stages of two species, Tchirkovaea guttata and Paimbia fenestrata (Palaeodictyoptera: Tchirkovaeidae), were reinvestigated with emphasis on comparing the development and growth of their wings with that of the wings of a recent mayfly, Cloeon dipterum. This unique fossil material was for a long time considered as undisputed evidence for an unusual type of wing development in Palaeozoic insects. The original idea was that the larvae of Palaeodictyopterida had wings, which were articulated and fully movable in their early stages of postembryonic development and that these gradually enlarging wings changed their position from longitudinal to perpendicular to the body axis.

Ecomorphological diversification of the Late Palaeozoic Palaeodictyopterida reveals different larval strategies and amphibious lifestyle in adults.

The Late Palaeozoic insect superorder Palaeodictyopterida exhibits a remarkable disparity of larval ecomorphotypes, enabling these animals to occupy diverse ecological niches. The widely accepted hypothesis presumed that their immature stages only occupied terrestrial habitats, although authors more than a century ago hypothesized they had specializations for amphibious or even aquatic life histories. Here, we show that different species had a disparity of semiaquatic or aquatic specializations in larvae and even the supposed retention of abdominal tracheal gills by some adults.