Jumping bristletail

Jumping bristletails
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Subphylum: Hexapoda Class: Insecta Subclass: Archaeognatha Order: Archaeognatha Börner, 1904
Families
Machilidae Meinertellidae

Jumping bristletails (Order Archaeognatha) were once classified with true bristletails, as they have a characteristic 3 long filament-like tails. However, jumping bristletails are considered true insects, unlike bristletails.

Identification

Jumping bristletails are wingless, medium-sized insect measuring around 15mm in length, not counting the tails or antennae. They are are generally a brownish color. They have compound eyes which are so large they occupy most of the head. They also have styli, movable fingerlike projections, on their abdomen.

Life Cycle

Metamorphosis is simple. Nymphs resemble adults. Unlike other insects, however, jumping bristletails will continue to molt occasionally even after they are sexually mature.

Habitat

Jumping bristletails live under rubble, loosely piles stones, leaf litter or bark in grassy or wooded areas, and in rocky cliffs next to the sea.

Taxonomy

Jumping bristletails were once considered part of the now defunct order Thyansura. Later, they were given their own order, Microcoryphia, which has since been supplanted by the current name, Archeaognatha.

Number of species

There are 25 species found in North America, and 350 worldwide.

Subdivisions

There are two families in this order, distinguished by differences in scales at the base of the antennae, and the number of pouches, or vesicles, beneath each abdominal segment.

Bibliography

Borrer, DJ and RE White. A Field Guide to Insects: America north of Mexico. Houghton Mifflin Company: Boston, 1970. ISBN 0-395-91170-2

Milne, L and M Milne. National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects & Spiders. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.: 1995. ISBN 0-394-50763-0

Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Accessed June 4 2008.