Alienoptera

Alienoptera is an extinct order of insects. It is part of Dictyoptera making it closely related to cockroaches and mantises. The majority of known members of the group are known from the Cenomanian aged Burmese amber from Myanmar;[1][2][3][4][5][6] however, the group also includes two genera (Apiblatta and Vcelesvab) from the Albian Crato Formation (Brazil), as well as two genera (Chimaeroblattina and Grant) from the middle Eocene Green River Formation (Colorado, United States). Some taxa are have been suggested mimics of various hymenopterans, including bees and ants.[4] However this was mostly rejected in another study.[7] Some taxa were probably predators adapted to moving through dense foliage.[7]

Alienoptera Temporal range: Early Cretaceous-Eocene, Albian–Middle Eocene PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Aethiocarenus, a presumed alienopteran nymph
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Superorder:	Dictyoptera
Order:	†Alienoptera Bai et al, 2016
Type genus
†Alienopterus Bai et al, 2016
Genera
†Aethiocarenus? †Alienopterella †Alienopterix †Alienopterus †Apiblatta †Caputoraptor †Chimaeroblattina †Formicamendax †Grant †Meilia †Teyia †Vcelesvab †Vzrkadlenie

Vršanský et al. (2018) did not consider Alienoptera to be a separate insect order; instead, the authors assigned the family Alienopteridae to the order Blattaria and to the superfamily Umenocoleoidea as sister to Umenocoleidae.[4] However, the term Alienoptera was retained by Wipfler et al. (2019).[7]