This is the recently identified, newest
order of
insects
discovered since
1914. One of the insects was found in
amber in the
Baltic region of
Europe. That insect dates back to 45 million years ago, but scientists still aren't sure how far back the order dates exactly, yet.
Scientists found
extant examples of the insects on the continent of
Africa, in the country of
Namibia. The location in Namibia is an isolated mountain called
Brandberg.
The insects are around an inch long and look to me like a walking stick in shape, from what I have seen. That means it is kind of tubular, without wings and with some just some legs, basically. When an examination of the stomach contents was done, the insect appeared to be a carnivore. They were found in grass and rock crevices on the mountain.
So far, the 2 African insects have been broken down into two species, Mantophasmatodea zephyra and Mantophasmatodea subsolana and the one that was found in amber was placed in a separate genus, Raptophasma.
An entomologist has noted this discovery as something similar to finding a live wooly mammoth or some other such prehistoric animal.
Due the very recent discovery of this order, there are bound to be changes and/or additions to this order and the insects contained therein. Scientists are hoping DNA testing will give provide a better idea on how this order relates to others insect orders.
I used information from the following:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1937000/1937150.stm
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=624&ncid=624&e=3&u=/ap/20020417/ap_on_sc/new_insect_1
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/18/science/18BUG.html
http://www.nature.com/nsu/020415/020415-10.html