Department of Zoology, University of the Witwatersrand, 1 Jan Smuts Avenue, Johannesburg, South Africa; Transvaal Museum (now Ditsong National Museum of Natural History), Pretoria, South Africa. Current address: Biosecurity, AsureQuality, 418 West Street, Ashburton, New Zealand ;
Theor Biol Forum. 2023 Jul 1;116(1-2):87-99. doi: 10.19272/202311402006.
Although most discussions on the origin and evolution of insect wings and metamorphosis have assumed that the ancestors of winged insects were terrestrial, it now seems possible that they were actually aquatic. Changing the basic assumptions affects our interpretations of the origin of metamorphosis and our understanding of insect diversity. It is argued that the ancestors of winged insects were similar to primitive mayflies, developing from aquatic larvae into terrestrial adults, and that metamorphosis originated as an inevitable consequence of an amphibiotic life cycle. It is suggested that the first pupae resembled those of Megaloptera.
尽管大多数关于昆虫翅膀和变态的起源和进化的讨论都假设有翅昆虫的祖先是在陆地上的，但现在看来它们可能实际上是水生的。改变基本假设会影响我们对变态起源的解释以及对昆虫多样性的理解。有人认为，有翅昆虫的祖先是类似于原始蜉蝣的，从水生幼虫发育为陆地成虫，而变态则是两栖生活周期的必然结果。有人提出，第一蛹类似于巨蜉蝣的蛹。
