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Introduction

The Thysanura or three pronged bristle-tails, are the linking order between the Apterygota (primarily wingless insects) and the Pterygota (primarily winged insects), and contain some of the most primitve of insects known to man i.e., the Thysanura are most like what we think the first insects looked like. The Protura, Diplura and Collembola representing other branches from a shared arthropodean ancestor, which along with the Archeognatha ( here part of the Thysanura) are considered part of the 'Hexapoda' but not part of the 'Insecta' the Hexapoda is a separate class of arthopods including the smaller group the 'Insecta' which contains the rest of what we think of as 'The Insects' in classification schemes (see The Tree of Life.

Description

Flightless insects with ectognathous mouth parts (externally visible as compared to entognathous mouth parts of the Diplura, Protura and Collembola which are sunk into the head and thus not imediately visible). They have long filiform antennae with as many as, or more than 30 segments. The abdomen has eleven segments generally ending in three 'tails' consisting of two cerci and a telson. They are commonly represented by the Silverfish and the firebrats often found in houses and bakeries respectively.

They spend most of their life concealed beneath or within stones, wood, houses, the soil etc., and they mostly feed on dead plant material and fungal hyphae. There are more than 720 species in the world 9 of which have been found in the British Isles.

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