Wingless insect

A wingless insect is an insect that does not have wings.

Many groups of insects do not have wings, so wingless sub-groups are unremarkable. Apterygota are a subclass of small, agile insects, distinguished from other insects by their lack of wings in the present and in their evolutionary history. Thysanura (silverfish and firebrats), Arixeniidae (wingless earwigs).

Several orders of insects generally have wings. Some species are classed in these orders because of their body structure, in spite of their lack of wings. Some do not grow wings at all, having "lost" the possibility in the remote past. Some have reduced wings that are not useful for flying. Some develop wings but shed them after they are no longer useful.

Wingless flies

True flies are insects of the order Diptera. The name is derived from the Greek di = two, and ptera = wings. Most insects of this order have two wings (not counting the halteres, club-like limbs which are homologous to the second pair of wings found on insects of other orders). Wingless flies are found on some islands and other isolated places. Some are parasites, resembling ticks.

Wingless moths

There are many species of wingless moths. Often only the females are wingless (larviform females).

Wingless wasps

• Rhopalosomatidae, a family having winged, wingless, and reduced-wing species

Others

• Eumastacidae, a family of grasshoppers having many wingless species
• Ant cricket
• Pictured rove beetle
• Fleas (Siphonaptera) are believed to have had winged ancestors.
• Louse are a wingless order (Phthiraptera) under the winged superorder Exopterygota.
• Trichogrammatidae, a family of parasitic wasps, some species of which have wingless males that mate and die inside the host egg

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