ZORAPTERA WING STRUCTURES - EVIDENCE FOR NEW GENERA AND RELATIONSHIP WITH THE BLATTOID ORDERS (INSECTA, BLATTONEOPTERA)

The order Zoraptera has traditionally been thought to contain only one family (Zorotypidae) and one genus (Zorotypus Silvestri). An analysis of known zorapteran wings shows that the wing venation contains chara cter sets indicative of the existence of seven genera: Zorotypus, Braz ilozoros gen.n., Centrozoros gen.n., Floridazoros gen.n., Latinozoros gen.n.; Meridozoros gen.n. and Usazoros gen.n. The wing venation of Me ridozoros leleupi (Weidner) from the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador and Ve nezuela is described here for the first time. The major wing structure s show that Zoraptera belong to the blattoid lineage. Head and abdomen characters indicate that Zoraptera probably diverged from the Blatton eoptera stock early, almost certainly before the (Protelytroptera + De rmaptera) line, and much before the (Isoptera + (Blattodea + Mantodea) ) line. A homologized wing vein system is proposed for the Isoptera. T he homologized wing vein system is based on the hypothesis that the Pt erygota originated with the development of protowings, which then dive rged through separate but characteristic adaptations for flapping flig ht. Therefore the basic wing venation pattern is monophyletic, but the changes in wing musculature, articulation and basic braces between ma in veins are different in the major (super-ordinal) pterygote lineages (Pleconeoptera, Orthoneoptera, Blattoneoptera, Hemineoptera and Endon eoptera). Thus, these characters provide an extremely useful, almost u ntapped, source of data for higher-level systematics. Both higher-leve l and lower-level wing characters have been applied here to the phylog eny of Zoraptera and are discussed.