Pterygota

{{Short description|Subclass of insects}}

{{use dmy dates|date=April 2021}}

{{Other uses}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| fossil_range = {{Fossil range|Serpukhovian|Recent}}

| image = Pterygota collage.png

| image_upright = 1.2

| image_caption = Clockwise from top left:

• dance fly (Empis livida)
• long-nosed weevil (Rhinotia hemistictus)
• mole cricket (Gryllotalpa brachyptera)
• German wasp (Vespula germanica)
• unidentified mayfly (Ephemeroptera)
• migrant hawker (Aeshna mixta)
• emperor gum moth (Opodiphthera eucalypti)
• assassin bug (Harpactorinae)

| taxon = Pterygota

| authority = Gegenbaur, 1878{{cite book|last=Gegenbaur|first=C|year=1878|title=Grundriss der vergleichenden Anatomie. Zweite verbesserte Auflage|volume=2nd ed.|place=Leipzig|publisher=W. Engelmann|page=244|language=de|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2093636}}

| subdivision_ranks = Subdivisions

| subdivision =

• {{extinct}} Palaeodictyopteroidea
• Panephemeroptera (total group Ephemeroptera)
• Metapterygota
• Odonatoptera
• Neoptera
• Polyneoptera
• Eumetabola
• Paraneoptera
• Holometabola

}}

Pterygota ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|t|ɛ|r|ə|ˈ|g|oʊ|t|ə}} {{respell|terrə|GOH|tə}}{{cite web |url=https://www.oed.com/dictionary/pterygota_n?tab=factsheet#27752112 |title=Pterygota |author= |date= |website= |publisher=Oxford English Dictionary |access-date=2024-09-17 |quote=}} {{langx|grc|πτερυγωτός|pterugōtós|winged}}) is a subclass of insects that includes all winged insects and groups who lost them secondarily.{{cite book|author1=Vincent H. Resh|author2=Ring T. Cardé|title=Encyclopedia of Insects|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ip57QSMCRk4C&pg=PA64|date=4 April 2003|publisher=Academic Press|isbn=978-0-08-054605-6|page=64}}

Pterygota group comprises 99.9% of all insects.{{Cite web|url=https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/57/2/155/228518?login=false|title=The Evolution and Genetics of Migration in Insects}} The orders not included are the Archaeognatha (jumping bristletails) and the Zygentoma (silverfishes and firebrats), two primitively wingless insect orders. Unlike Archaeognatha and Zygentoma, the pterygotes do not have styli or vesicles on their abdomen (also absent in some zygentomans), and with the exception of the majority of mayflies, are also missing the median terminal filament which is present in the ancestrally wingless insects.{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0812-4_70|title=Mechanoreceptors: Development, Structure, and Function|chapter=Coxal Setal Organs in Archaeognatha and Zygentoma (Insecta)|first=František|last=Weyda|editor-first1=Pavel|editor-last1=Hník|editor-first2=Tomáš|editor-last2=Soukup|editor-first3=Richard|editor-last3=Vejsada|editor-first4=Jiřina|editor-last4=Zelená|date=25 June 1988|publisher=Springer US|pages=365–367|via=Springer Link|doi=10.1007/978-1-4899-0812-4_70|isbn=978-1-4899-0814-8 }}{{Cite journal|url=https://resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-3032.1953.tb00643.x|title=THE EVERSIBLE VESICLES OF CAMPODEA (THYSANURA)|first=F. H.|last=Drummond|date=25 December 1953|journal=Proceedings of the Royal Entomological Society of London. Series A, General Entomology|volume=28|issue=10–12|pages=145–148|via=CrossRef|doi=10.1111/j.1365-3032.1953.tb00643.x}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u1w7BAAAQBAJ&dq=pterygota+styles+vesicular+appendages+terminal+filament&pg=PA205|title=The Insects: An Outline of Entomology|first1=P. J.|last1=Gullan|first2=P. S.|last2=Cranston|date=3 November 2014|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-118-84615-5 |via=Google Books}}

The oldest known representatives of the group appeared during the mid-Carboniferous, around 328–324 million years ago, and the group subsequently underwent rapid diversification. Claims that they originated substantially earlier during the Silurian or Devonian based on molecular clock estimates are unlikely based on the fossil record, and are likely analytical artefacts.{{Cite journal |last1=Schachat |first1=Sandra R |last2=Goldstein |first2=Paul Z |last3=Desalle |first3=Rob |last4=Bobo |first4=Dean M |last5=Boyce |first5=C Kevin |last6=Payne |first6=Jonathan L |last7=Labandeira |first7=Conrad C |date=2023-02-02 |title=Illusion of flight? Absence, evidence and the age of winged insects |url=https://academic.oup.com/biolinnean/article/138/2/143/6936511 |journal=Biological Journal of the Linnean Society |language=en |volume=138 |issue=2 |pages=143–168 |doi=10.1093/biolinnean/blac137 |issn=0024-4066|doi-access=free }}

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