Basic Facts: Insect Orders and Types of Metamorphosis
No Metamorphosis (young are similar to adults)

  1. Archeognatha (bristletails)

  2. Thysanura (silverfish)

Incomplete Metamorphosis (egg-nymph-adult)

  1. Ephemeroptera (mayflies)

  2. Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies)

  3. Grylloblattaria (rock crawlers)

  4. Phasmatodea (walkingsticks)

  5. Orthoptera (grasshoppers and crickets)

  6. Mantodea (mantids)

  7. Blattaria (cockroaches)

  8. Isoptera (termites)

  9. Dermaptera (earwigs)

  10. Embiidina (webspinners)

  11. Plecoptera (stoneflies)

  12. Zoraptera (zorapterans)

  13. Psocoptera (booklice and psocids)

  14. Phthiraptera (lice)

  15. Hemiptera (true bugs)

  16. Homoptera (cicadas, hoppers, aphids, scale insects, and others)

  17. Thysanoptera (thrips)

Complete Metamorphosis (egg-larva-pupa-adult)

  1. Megaloptera (dobsonflies and alderflies)

  2. Neuroptera (lacewings, antlions, and owlflies)

  3. Raphidioptera (snakeflies)

  4. Coleoptera (beetles)

  5. Strepsiptera (twisted-wing parasites)

  6. Mecoptera (scorpionflies)

  7. Siphonaptera (fleas)

  8. Diptera (flies)

  9. Trichoptera (caddisflies)

  10. Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies)

  11. Hymenoptera (sawflies, ants, wasps, bees)

Other Orders of Hexapoda

The following orders were once considered to be the most primitive insects. They have six legs (so they are Hexapoda), but they have some major differences from insects in other body parts.
  1. Protura (proturans)

  2. Diplura (diplurans)

  3. Collembola (springtails)

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