"Myriapoda" and the ancestry of the Hexapoda

Insight based on constructional and functional morphology, including studie s on homology, provide sound arguments against recent assumptions that Crus tacea and Hexapoda are sister groups. A thorough analysis of the frequently neglected high-ranked taxa previously united in an artificial grouping "My riapoda" confirms the traditional view : that Crustacea are the sister grou p of all other Mandibulata, i.e. of the "Myriapoda" and Hexapoda. This unit Tracheata (= Atelocerata) is regarded as monophyletic. Decisive arguments are presented as to why the Chilopoda form the phylogenetic counterpart to all other representatives of the Tracheata, i.e. of the Progoneata and Hexa poda. The monophyletic unit formed by these taxa, progoneates and hexapods, was named Labiophora Kraus & Kraus, 1994. There are detailed arguments as to why various differing views are highly improbable or even erroneous (e.g . maintenance of the "Myriapoda"; phylogeny of the Chilopoda; interpretatio n of the mouthparts of the Diplopoda + Pauropoda).