Fossils Insect wing

holotype wing of extinct cimbrophlebia brooksi. 49.5 million years old; boot hill , klondike mountain formation, washington, usa.

fossils devonian (400 million years ago) wingless, carboniferous (320 million years ago), more 10 different genera of insects had functional wings. there little preservation of transitional forms between 2 periods. earliest winged insects time period (pterygota), including blattoptera, caloneurodea, primitive stem-group ephemeropterans, orthoptera , palaeodictyopteroidea. blattopterans (during carboniferous) had large discoid pronotum , coriaceous forewings distinct cup vein (an unbranched wing vein, lying near claval fold , reaching wing posterior margin). though oldest definitive insect fossil devonian rhyniognatha hirsti, estimated @ 396–407 million years old, possessed dicondylic mandibles, feature associated winged insects.

during permian, dragonflies odonata dominant aerial predator , dominated terrestrial insect predation well. true odonata appeared in permian , amphibian. prototypes oldest winged fossils, go devonian, , different other wings in every way. prototypes may have had beginnings of many modern attributes late carboniferous , possible captured small vertebrates, species had wing span of 71 cm. earliest beetle-like species during permian had pointed, leather forewings cells , pits. hemiptera, or true bugs had appeared in form of arctiniscytina , paraknightia having forewings unusual venation, possibly diverging blattoptera.

a single large wing species of diptera in triassic (10 mm instead of usual 2–6 mm) found in australia (mt. crosby).this family tilliardipteridae, despite of numerous tipuloid features, should included in psychodomorpha sensu hennig on account of loss of convex distal 1a reaching wing margin , formation of anal loop.