22-495: Neuroptera sensu Palker, 1982 The Neuropterida are a clade , sometimes placed at superorder level, of holometabolous insects with over 5,700 described species, containing the orders Neuroptera (lacewings, antlions), Megaloptera (alderflies, dobsonflies), and Raphidioptera (snakeflies). Historically, they were known as Neuroptera , but this name nowadays refers to lacewings and their relatives ( e.g. antlions) only, which formerly were known as Planipennia. Part of
44-534: A clade (from Ancient Greek κλάδος (kládos) 'branch'), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group , is a grouping of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree . In the taxonomical literature, sometimes the Latin form cladus (plural cladi ) is used rather than the English form. Clades are
66-612: A midge to that of a large dragonfly (15 cm (5.9 in) wingspan); the largest species tend to resemble drab, clumsily flying damselflies . In addition to the three living orders, there is an entirely extinct family of Neuropterida, the monotypic Rafaelidae . These are of an indeterminate but probably rather basal position; thus the single genus Rafaeliana from the Early Cretaceous Santana Formation 's Crato Member in Brazil might for
88-479: A "ladder", with supposedly more "advanced" organisms at the top. Taxonomists have increasingly worked to make the taxonomic system reflect evolution. When it comes to naming , this principle is not always compatible with the traditional rank-based nomenclature (in which only taxa associated with a rank can be named) because not enough ranks exist to name a long series of nested clades. For these and other reasons, phylogenetic nomenclature has been developed; it
110-623: A clade can be described based on two different reference points, crown age and stem age. The crown age of a clade refers to the age of the most recent common ancestor of all of the species in the clade. The stem age of a clade refers to the time that the ancestral lineage of the clade diverged from its sister clade. A clade's stem age is either the same as or older than its crown age. Ages of clades cannot be directly observed. They are inferred, either from stratigraphy of fossils , or from molecular clock estimates. Viruses , and particularly RNA viruses form clades. These are useful in tracking
132-422: A revised taxonomy based on a concept strongly resembling clades, although the term clade itself would not be coined until 1957 by his grandson, Julian Huxley . German biologist Emil Hans Willi Hennig (1913–1976) is considered to be the founder of cladistics . He proposed a classification system that represented repeated branchings of the family tree, as opposed to the previous systems, which put organisms on
154-429: A suffix added should be e.g. "dracohortian". A clade is by definition monophyletic , meaning that it contains one ancestor which can be an organism, a population, or a species and all its descendants. The ancestor can be known or unknown; any and all members of a clade can be extant or extinct. The science that tries to reconstruct phylogenetic trees and thus discover clades is called phylogenetics or cladistics ,
176-499: Is also used with a similar meaning in other fields besides biology, such as historical linguistics ; see Cladistics § In disciplines other than biology . The term "clade" was coined in 1957 by the biologist Julian Huxley to refer to the result of cladogenesis , the evolutionary splitting of a parent species into two distinct species, a concept Huxley borrowed from Bernhard Rensch . Many commonly named groups – rodents and insects , for example – are clades because, in each case,
198-514: Is divided into two major subfamilies, Nymphinae and Myiodactylinae. The larvae of nymphines are similar to antlions, with relatively elongate bodies, and camouflage themselves in debris, living and hunting on the ground, while myiodactylines have wide, disc shaped bodies, and are arboreal, living on plants. The adults are thought to be predaceous and are primarily active at night, and are attracted to lights. Fossil genera are known from Europe, Asia as well as North and South America, extending back to
220-476: Is in turn included in the mammal, vertebrate and animal clades. The idea of a clade did not exist in pre- Darwinian Linnaean taxonomy , which was based by necessity only on internal or external morphological similarities between organisms. Many of the better known animal groups in Linnaeus's original Systema Naturae (mostly vertebrate groups) do represent clades. The phenomenon of convergent evolution
242-515: Is responsible for many cases of misleading similarities in the morphology of groups that evolved from different lineages. With the increasing realization in the first half of the 19th century that species had changed and split through the ages, classification increasingly came to be seen as branches on the evolutionary tree of life . The publication of Darwin's theory of evolution in 1859 gave this view increasing weight. In 1876 Thomas Henry Huxley , an early advocate of evolutionary theory, proposed
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#1732802585458264-489: Is still controversial. As an example, see the full current classification of Anas platyrhynchos (the mallard duck) with 40 clades from Eukaryota down by following this Wikispecies link and clicking on "Expand". The name of a clade is conventionally a plural, where the singular refers to each member individually. A unique exception is the reptile clade Dracohors , which was made by haplology from Latin "draco" and "cohors", i.e. "the dragon cohort "; its form with
286-605: The Holometabola and related to beetles , they can be considered an unranked taxon . Arguably, the Holometabola might be considered an unranked clade instead, and be divided into numerous superorders to signify the close relationships of certain holometabolan groups. The Mecoptera (scorpionflies) were formerly included here too by some authors, but they actually belong to the Mecopteroidea (or Antliophora ),
308-938: The families of Neuropterida as shown in the following phylogenetic tree. Raphidioptera (snakeflies) [REDACTED] Megaloptera (alderflies and allies) [REDACTED] Coniopterygidae (dustywings) Osmylidae (giant lacewings) [REDACTED] Nevrorthidae Sisyridae (spongillaflies) Dilaridae (pleasing lacewings) Chrysopidae (green lacewings) [REDACTED] Rhachiberothidae (thorny lacewings) Mantispidae (mantidflies) [REDACTED] Symphrasinae Berothidae (beaded lacewings) Hemerobiidae (brown lacewings) [REDACTED] Ithonidae (moth lacewings) [REDACTED] Psychopsidae (silky lacewings) [REDACTED] Nymphidae (split-footed lacewings) [REDACTED] Nemopteridae (spoonwings) [REDACTED] Myrmeleontidae (antlions) [REDACTED] Ascalaphidae (owlflies) [REDACTED] Clade In biological phylogenetics ,
330-451: The fundamental unit of cladistics , a modern approach to taxonomy adopted by most biological fields. The common ancestor may be an individual, a population , or a species ( extinct or extant ). Clades are nested, one in another, as each branch in turn splits into smaller branches. These splits reflect evolutionary history as populations diverged and evolved independently. Clades are termed monophyletic (Greek: "one clan") groups. Over
352-546: The group consists of a common ancestor with all its descendant branches. Rodents, for example, are a branch of mammals that split off after the end of the period when the clade Dinosauria stopped being the dominant terrestrial vertebrates 66 million years ago. The original population and all its descendants are a clade. The rodent clade corresponds to the order Rodentia, and insects to the class Insecta. These clades include smaller clades, such as chipmunk or ant , each of which consists of even smaller clades. The clade "rodent"
374-440: The holometabolan clade containing also true flies and fleas . Neuropterida are fairly primitive-looking insects, with large wings but weak wing muscles, giving them a clumsy flight. Most are active at dusk or in the night as adults, and the larvae of many are aquatic , living in rivers . At least the larvae, but in many cases the adults too, are predators of small arthropods . Adult neuropteridans range in size from that of
396-590: The last few decades, the cladistic approach has revolutionized biological classification and revealed surprising evolutionary relationships among organisms. Increasingly, taxonomists try to avoid naming taxa that are not clades; that is, taxa that are not monophyletic . Some of the relationships between organisms that the molecular biology arm of cladistics has revealed include that fungi are closer relatives to animals than they are to plants, archaea are now considered different from bacteria , and multicellular organisms may have evolved from archaea. The term "clade"
418-518: The latter term coined by Ernst Mayr (1965), derived from "clade". The results of phylogenetic/cladistic analyses are tree-shaped diagrams called cladograms ; they, and all their branches, are phylogenetic hypotheses. Three methods of defining clades are featured in phylogenetic nomenclature : node-, stem-, and apomorphy-based (see Phylogenetic nomenclature§Phylogenetic definitions of clade names for detailed definitions). The relationship between clades can be described in several ways: The age of
440-520: The owlflies ( Ascalaphidae ) are more closely related to them, but the bulk of the Nymphidae sister groups include extinct taxa known only from fossils , such as the Nymphitidae, Osmylopsychopidae or Babinskaiidae . The spoonwings ( Nemopteridae ) were at one time also believed to be quite closely related, but they seem to belong to another lineage of Myrmeleontiformia altogether. The family
462-676: The spread of viral infections . HIV , for example, has clades called subtypes, which vary in geographical prevalence. HIV subtype (clade) B, for example is predominant in Europe, the Americas and Japan, whereas subtype A is more common in east Africa. Nymphidae Nymphidae , sometimes called split-footed lacewings , are a family of winged insects of the order Neuroptera . There are 35 extant species native to Australia and New Guinea. Nymphidae stand somewhat apart from other living Myrmeleontoidea . The antlions ( Myrmeleontidae ) and
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#1732802585458484-473: The time being be better placed in the Neuropterida directly, without assigning it to an order, until relatives are found and/or its systematic position gets resolved better. The extinct order Glosselytrodea may also be a member or close relative, though classification is unclear. A phylogenomic analysis published in 2023 confirmed the topology of the neuropterid orders and found the relationships between
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