Symphypleona

Taxobox
name = Symphypleona


image_width = 240px
image_caption = Unidentified Sminthuridae
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
subphylum = Hexapoda
classis = Entognatha (disputed)
subclassis = Collembola
ordo = Symphypleona
ordo_authority =
subdivision_ranks = Superfamilies
subdivision =
Dicyrtomoidea

Katiannoidea

Sminthuroidea

Sminthurididoidea

Sturmioidea

synonyms =
Neopleona

The order Symphypleona is one of the three main groups of springtails (Collembola), tiny hexapods related to insects. When the springtails were still believed to be an order of insects, the Symphypleona were ranked as a suborder.

They can be best distinguished from the other springtail groups by their body shape. The Symphypleona are very round animals, almost spherical, and usually have long antennae. The Poduromorpha, by contrast, always have short legs and a plump body, but more oval in shape than the Symphypleona. The Entomobryomorpha contain the slimmest springtails, some with long and some with short legs and antennae, but always with a very slender body.

ystematics

The Symphypleona were always considered a highly distinct group of springtails, unlike the Entomobryomorpha and Poduromorpha which were in former times erroneously united in the paraphyletic "Arthropleona". However, occasionally the family Neelidae were separated as an order "Neelipleona"; this is in error too, as the Neelidae are actually just very apomorphic relatives of the Sminthuridae, tiny, eyeless but with sensory fields all over their body instead. Consequently, the monotypic "Neelipleona" are abolished and the Neelidae are included in the Sminthuroidea. [See references in Haaramo (2008)]

List of families

Includes fossil families.

Superfamily Sminthurididoidea
* Family Mackenziellidae
* Family SminthurididaeSuperfamily Katiannoidea
* Family Katiannidae
* Family Spinothecidae
* Family Arrhopalitidae
* Family CollophoridaeSuperfamily Sturmioidea
* Family SturmiidaeSuperfamily Sminthuroidea
* Family Neelidae
* Family Sminthuridae
* Family BourletiellidaeSuperfamily Dicyrtomoidea
* Family Dicyrtomidae

Footnotes

References

* (2008): Mikko's Phylogeny Archive - [http://www.helsinki.fi/~mhaaramo/metazoa/protostoma/arthropoda/collembola.html Collembola] . Version of 2008-MAR-11. Retrieved 2008-JUL-11.