Any arthropod with true wings or wing buds is an insect. he typical insect wing is a membranous network of veins, but wings are modified into various forms. For example, forewings are converted to shell-like elytra in beetles and earwigs (Character 2b), and are leathery in most orthopteroids; the hind wings are club-shaped or scale-like halteres in flies. Thrips, and some minute wasps and beetles, have distinctive wings composed of a median rod-like process fringed with long setae (bristle wings: Character 2c). Some oribatid and tarsonemid mites have wing-like lateral processes that protect the legs (pteromorphs: Character 2d)
The typical insect wing is a membranous network of veins, but forewings are often serve a protective function for the hindwings and are smaller and more heavily sclerotized. For example, forewings are converted to shell-like elytra in beetles and earwigs (Character 2b), and are leathery in most orthopteroids. Some oribatid and tarsonemid mites have wing-like lateral processes that protect the legs (pteromorphs: Character 2d).
Thrips, and some minute wasps and beetles, have wings composed of a median rod-like process fringed with long setae. These are called bristle wings or feather wings.
Some oribatid mites and a few prostigmatans (Tarsonemidae) have wing-like lateral processes called pteromorphs that protect the legs. These pteromorphs can be fixed and immovable or pulled down against the legs and body wall, resulting in a featureless, seed-like mite.
Author: David E. Walter
Content last updated Sept. 2006, unless indicated otherwise
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