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iGladiators
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Subphylum: Hexapoda Class: Insecta Subclass: Pterygota Infraclass: Neoptera Superorder: Exopterygota Order: Mantophasmatodea Klass, Zompro, Kristensen & Adis, 2002
Families
Austrophasmatidae Mantophasmatidae Tanzaniophasmatidae

Mantophasmatodea is an order of African carnivorous insects discovered in 2002, the first new insect order to be described since 1914. The common name for this order is Gladiators, although they are also called Mantophasmids, Mantos and Heelwalkers. Their modern centre of endemnism is western South Africa and Namibia, although a relict population and Eocene fossil suggest a wider ancient distribution.

Members of the order are wingless even as adults, making them relatively difficult to identify. They resemble a mix between praying mantises and phasmids, and molecular evidence indicates that they are most closely related to the phasmids and the equally enigmatic order Grylloblattodea (Cameron et al., 2006). The gladiators were initially described from live specimens found in Namibia (Mantophasma zephyra and M. subsolana) and from a 45-million-year-old specimen of Baltic amber (Rhaptophasma kerneggeri).

The authors of the paper describing the new order (Klass et al., 2002) note that "it cannot at present be categorically excluded" that the two Mantophasma specimens are of the same species, with the size difference reflecting sexual dimorphism, but they consider this unlikely, because of the wide geographical separation of the specimens.

[edit] Classification

The three initial species of Gladiators were classified as follows:

• Family Mantophasmatidae
  • West Wind Gladiator, Mantophasma zephyra
  • East Wind Gladiator, Mantophasma subsolana
  • †Rhaptophasma kerneggeri

However, additional specimens and genetic studies have produced several new species identifications, including splitting all three of these species into different families:

• Family Tanzaniophasmatidae
  • East Wind Gladiator, Tanzaniophasma subsolana
• Family: Mantophasmatidae
  • West Wind Gladiator, Mantophasma zephyra
  • Sclerophasma paresisensis
• Family: Austrophasmatidae
  • Austrophasma caledonensis
  • Austrophasma gansbaaiensis
  • Austrophasma rawsonvillensis
  • Lobophasma redelinghuysensis
  • Hemilobophasma montaguensis
  • Karoophasma biedouwensis
  • Karoophasma botterkloofensis
  • Namaquaphasma ookiepensis
• Family: 'Inquirendo' (taxa of uncertain family placement)
  • †Rhaptophasma kerneggeri
  • Praedatophasma maraisi
  • Tyrannophasma gladiator

[edit] References

• Cameron, Stephen L.; Barker, Stephen C. & Whiting, Michael F. (2006): Mitochondrial genomics and the new insect order Mantophasmatodea. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 38: 274–279. DOI:10.1016/j.ympev.2005.09.020 (HTML abstract)
• Klass, Klaus-D.; Zompro, Oliver; Kristensen, Niels P. & Adis, Joachim (2002): Mantophasmatodea: a new insect order with extant members in the Afrotropics. Science 296: 1456-1459. PDf fulltext

[edit] External links

• Mantophasmatodea - A new Order of Insects
• Mantophasmatodea (mantos)
• New Insect Order Found in Southern Africa
• New order of insects identified: Mantophasmatodea find their place in Class Insectada:Mantophasmatodea

de:Gladiatoren it:Mantophasmatodea nl:Mantophasmatodea ja:マントファスマ no:Mantophasmatidae