Origin of the Hexapoda

Edited by Thierry Deuve
June 2001
Annales de la Societe Entomologique de France
ISBN: 2-912703-04-0
221 pages, Illustrated, 7 1/4" x 10 1/2"
$157.50 Paper Original

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During the last fifty years, zoologists have agreed that insects (Hexapoda) and myriapods should be united in their own group, the Atelocerata. These terrestrial arthropods were thus opposed to the mainly aquatic Crustacea, whose morphology seemed quite different. During the course of the last few years, the results of molecular analyses (sequencing of nucleic acids and genomic organization) have prompted researchers to consider insects and crustaceans as being closely related. Recent progress in developmental genetics have also provided strong arguments in favor of a common origin for these groups, which show a comparable organization of the skeleton into "head, thorax, abdomen." This hypothesis of a close relationship between insects and crustaceans has led specialists to reconsider all the characters of the three classes - Hexapoda, Crustacea and Myriapoda - in a new light. The resulting discussions, which took place during a meeting held at the museum national d'histoire naturelle, Paris, form the basis of the present volume. This book will therefore be of interest to all zoologists studying insects, crustaceans and myriapodas, as well as to biologists concerned with the evolution of life. It may be that there was once a single crustacean lineage that left the marine environment and gave rise to the extraordinarily diverse and successful world of insects we see today. It is the story of the conquest of the terrestrial environment.

Entomology
Annales de la Societe Entomologique de France, Vol. 37, No. 1-2

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