Other Invertebrates Codexery

Grylloblattidae

Wingless ice-dwelling insects with extreme cold tolerance.

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Commonly referred to as icebugs or ice crawlers, Grylloblattidae are extremophile insects that lack wings and inhabit cold mountainous regions and glacier edges.[1] The order Grylloblattodea, which is occasionally classified as a suborder within Notoptera, has these insects as its sole extant representatives.[1] These insects typically measure under 3 cm, possess lengthy antennae and cerci, and are wingless.[1][2]

Scientific classification

  1. KingdomAnimalia
  2. PhylumArthropoda
  3. CladePancrustacea
  4. ClassInsecta
  5. OrderGrylloblattodea
  6. FamilyGrylloblattidae

Named by E. M. Walker, 1914

Sources: Wikipedia taxobox: Grylloblattidae (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Quick Facts

Field
Entomology
Genera
5 extant genera (Arctigalloisiana, Galloisiana, Grylloblatta, Grylloblattella, Grylloblattina, Namkungia)

Facts from the source article.

Key facts and history

The first species, Grylloblatta campodeiformis, was discovered in 1914 by E.M. Walker and T.B. Kurata.[2] Most are nocturnal and feed on detritus, dead arthropods, and carrion, but will eat plant material when animal matter is scarce.[2][3] They are patchily distributed in western North America, East Asia, and Central Asia.[4] Many species have very restricted ranges and are threatened by habitat warming.[5]

A cockroach-like head, antennae composed of 23 to 45 segments, and cerci with 5 to 8 segments are characteristic features of grylloblattids.[1][2] Ocelli are absent in these insects, and their eyes are either reduced or completely missing.[2] Approximately 34 living species, distributed across 5 genera, make up this family.[6] The extinct group "Grylloblattida", which emerged during the Late Carboniferous more than 300 million years ago, is believed to be the ancestral lineage of Grylloblattidae.[7]

What the cited sources add

According to Grimaldi and Engel's 2005 work "Evolution of the Insects", grylloblattids are omnivores whose diet mainly consists of dead arthropods and carrion.[8][3] Plant material becomes their food source when dead arthropods are not plentiful, as noted in the same publication.[8][3]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Grylloblattidae" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Arillo, "Rock crawlers in Baltic amber (Notoptera: Mantophasmatodea)", American Museum Novitates, 2006, p. 1–10 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Grylloblattidae" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Richards, "Imms' General Textbook of Entomology", Springer Netherlands, 1977, p. 533; Stephen L. Cameron, Stephen C. Barker & Michael F. Whiting, "Mitochondrial genomics and the new insect order Mantophasmatodea", Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 2006, p. 274–279; Kim, "Redescription of the Largest Ice Bug, Namkungia Magnus Com. Nov. (Grylloblattodea, Grylloblattidae) from Korea", Zootaxa, 2006, p. 57–66 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Grylloblattidae" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: David Grimaldi, Michael S. Engel, "Evolution of the Insects", Cambridge University Press, 2005, p. 222–224 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Grylloblattidae" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bai, "A Second New Species of Ice Crawlers from China (Insecta: Grylloblattodea), with Thorax Evolution and the Prediction of Potential Distribution", PLOS ONE, 2010 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Grylloblattidae" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Schoville, "Current status of the systematics and evolutionary biology of Grylloblattidae (Grylloblattodea)", Systematic Entomology, 2014, p. 197–204 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Grylloblattidae" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Terry L. Erwin, "Biodiversity II", Joseph Henry Press, 1997, p. 27–40; Zhang, Z.-Q., "Phylum Arthropoda von Siebold, 1848 In: Zhang, Z.-Q. (Ed.) Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classification and survey of taxonomic richness", Zootaxa, 2011, p. 99–103 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Grylloblattidae" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Cawood, "The first 'Grylloblattida' of the family Liomopteridae from the Middle Permian in the Onder Karoo, South Africa (Insecta: Polyneoptera)", Comptes Rendus Palevol, 2022-06-29, p. 451–461 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Open Library record, ISBN 9780521821490 ("Evolution of the insects"). CC0 (metadata); book content not read. openlibrary.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Grylloblattidae (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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