LIBRARY

CHAPTER XVII
14. Order ZORAPTERAl Silvestri 1913
(Zor-ap'te-ra, from the Greek twpos, pure, + a7fTepa, wingless;
because the first species described were wingless.) German,
BodenIause.
Zorapterans.
Minute apterous and winged insects with biting mouth parts; simple metamorphosis;
nine-segmented, moniliform antennrej two-segmented tarsi; eyes absent in apterous
forms, compound eyes nnd ocelli present in winged forms; wings long and slender, fore
pair much larger than hind pair, with few branching veins, capable of being shed; cerci
short, unsegmented.
These very small insects are scarcely more than 3 mm. long and have a wing
expanse of only 7 mm. They are pale in color and look a great deal like miniature
termites. This resemblance is further emphasized by their ability to cast
off their wings, by the bead-liJ{e antennc.e, by their habit of living in colonies
under bark and in dead wood and in the soil, and by their frequent association
with termites. The head is quite large and free. The apterous forms are
totally blind, whereas the winged individuals have well-developed compound
eyes and three oval ocelli. The mandibles are stout; the maxillary palpi fivesegmented;
the labium has a completely divided prementum and three-segmented
palpi; the prothorax is free and nearly circular in form; legs similar,
hind femora short and stout, first tarsal segment very short; wings varying
considerably in size but of the same membranous texture, long and narrow,
with few veins, deciduous, leaving stubs attached to the thorax; abdomen
lO-segmented; cerci short, unsegmented, with wide bases and few or many long
hairs. There are two thoracic and eight abdominal spiracles. The crop is wide,
the stomach ovoid; hind intestine convoluted; about six Malpighian tubules;
three thoracic and but two abdominal ganglia.
The order is a very small one and has but a single family, ZOROTYPIDlE
Silvestri 1913, a single genus, Zorotypus Silvestri, and some 12 species. The
first specimens, all wingless, were collected in West Africa and described as
Zorotypus guineensis by Silvestri in 1913. Since then other species have been
taken in North America, South America, Java, Sumatra, Ceylon, and Hawaii.
The two species occurring in this country are Z. hubbardi Caudell, in Florida
and Texas, and Z. snyderi Caudell in Florida. The order, as now known, appears
to be tropical or semitropical in distribution.
1 These insects have also heen arranged in ZORAPTERA as a suborder of the CORRODEN­
TIA. Crampton erected the order P ANISOPTERA for them in 1919.
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