page_title: Strepsiptera
section_title: Classification
hierarchical_section_title: Strepsiptera / Classification
caption_attribution_description: English: Mengenilla moldrzyki sp. n. ♂ A Head frontal view B Head, thorax and anterior part of abdomen, dorsal view; photomicrograph.
context_page_description: The Strepsiptera are an endopterygote order of insects with nine extant families that include about 600 described species. They are endoparasites in other insects, such as bees, wasps, leafhoppers, silverfish, and cockroaches. Females of most species never emerge from the host after entering its body, finally dying inside it. The early-stage larvae do emerge because they must find an unoccupied living host, and the short-lived males must emerge to seek a receptive female in her host.
  The order is not well known to non-specialists, and the nearest they have to a common name is "stylops". The name of the order translates to "twisted wing"', giving rise to another name used for the order, twisted-wing insects.
context_section_description: The order, named by William Kirby in 1813, is named for the hind wings, which are held at a twisted angle when at rest (from Greek στρέϕειν (strephein), to twist; and πτερόν (pteron), wing). The fore wings are reduced to halteres.
  Strepsiptera were once believed to be the sister group to the beetle families Meloidae and Ripiphoridae, which have similar parasitic development and forewing reduction; early molecular research suggested their inclusion as a sister group to the flies, in a clade called the halteria, which have one pair of the wings modified into halteres, and failed to support their relationship to the beetles. Further molecular studies, however, suggested they are outside the clade Mecopterida (containing the Diptera and Lepidoptera), but found no strong evidence for affinity with any other extant group. Study of their evolutionary position has been problematic due to difficulties in phylogenetic analysis arising from long branch attraction. The most basal strepsipteran is the fossil Protoxenos janzeni discovered in Baltic amber, while the most basal living strepsipteran is Bahiaxenos relictus, the sole member of the family Bahiaxenidae. The earliest known strepsipteran fossil is that of Cretostylops engeli, discovered in middle Cretaceous amber from Myanmar.
  In 2012, a fresh molecular study revived the assertion that the Stepsiptera are the sister group of the Coleoptera (beetles).
caption: Mengenilla moldrzyki (Mengenilidae)
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