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Mantophasmatodea (heelwalkers, mantos)
Life
> Eukaryotes >
Opisthokonta >
Metazoa (animals) > Bilateria > Ecdysozoa
> Panarthropoda > Tritocerebra > Phylum:
Arthopoda > Mandibulata >
Atelocerata > Panhexapoda >
Hexapoda
> Insecta (insects) > Dicondyla > Pterygota >
Metapterygota > Neoptera > Polyneoptera > Anartioptera
Mantophasmatodea is a newly described,
relict group
of insects comprising a handful of species restricted to Africa. Mantos are related to Phasmatodea, Grylloblattodea and Mantodea. They are
voracious carnivores.
The recent description of the
new insect order Mantophasmatodea (Klass et al. 2002) is akin to
discovering beetles or flies, or for that matter, bats or rodents for the first
time. The last time a category of insects was described at this deep
evolutionary level was in 1914 when the ice crawlers (order Notoptera), a small
group of insects restricted to the northern hemisphere, were brought to the
attention of the scientific world.
Specimens of Mantophasmatodea had in fact been
collected in South Africa many years ago, mounted and housed in museum
collections, but forgotten as they were misidentified as immature mantids (Mantodea). Amazingly, five individuals were collected by South African
Museum staff as long ago as 1890 at Okiep in Namaqualand. Louis Albert
Perinquey, an insect taxonomist at the South African Museum (1884-1924) examined
these specimens and decided that they represented a new genus and species, which
he provisionally named "Ograbiesa ferox". We know this from a
label that he placed on the pin below one of the specimens. However, we do not
know which order of insects he would have assigned these specimens to, as the
genus and species were never formally described. The specimens were placed in a
museum drawer along with unidentified Praying Mantids, where they stayed for
more than a 100 years until a recent search through the collection unearthed
them! Possibly Peringuey considered that they belonged to, or were related
to the order Mantodea, although at that time mantids, orthoptera and stick
insects were grouped loosely together. Further searching produced additional,
more recently collected specimens, located in various museums in South Africa.
Live specimens of a dozen or so species have now been collected during field
expeditions in 2002 and 2003 in South Africa and Namibia.
If you believe that you have
found a heelwalker, please contact either Mike
Picker or Simon van Noort.
Web page development and text by Simon
van Noort (Iziko South African Museum) and Mike
Picker (University of Cape Town) |
