Protura (redirected from proturan)

Protura [prə′tyu̇r·ə]

(invertebrate zoology)

An order of primitive wingless insects belonging to the subclass Apterygota; individuals are elongate and eyeless, lack antennae, and are from pale amber to white in color; anamorphosis is characteristic of the group.

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Protura 

(Myrientomata), an order of primitive wingless insects (apterygotes). They are 0.5–2 mm long. In Protura, the cirri, or antennae, are completely lacking (hence their name in Russian of bessiazhkovye nasekomye [antennaeless insects]); they also have no eyes or wings. The front pair of legs is directed forward and is equipped with cutaneous sensory organs; these legs serve not for crawling but for feeling, thus replacing the cirri. The abdomen has from one to four pairs of rudimentary abdominal legs, a trait linking the Protura with the Myriopoda class. Many Protura do not have tracheae (Acerentomidae family). Protura are widely distributed; they live mainly in warm climate regions, in hidden, wet places. They develop by anamorphosis. There are more than 200 species; in the USSR there are Eosentomon silvestrii, living in pine tree stumps, and Nipponentomon, living in rocky soils in the southern Urals.

REFERENCE

Tuxen, S. L. The Protura. Paris, 1964.