Wikipedia
The Pterygota are a subclass of insects that includes the winged insects. It also includes insect orders that are secondarily wingless (that is, insect groups whose ancestors once had wings but that have lost them as a result of subsequent evolution).
The pterygotan group comprises almost all insects. The insect orders not included are the Archaeognatha (jumping bristletails) and the Thysanura ( silverfishes and firebrats), two primitively wingless insect orders. Also not included are the three orders no longer considered to be insects: Protura, Collembola, and Diplura.
Pterygota may refer to:
- Pterygota, a subclass of insects that includes the winged insects
- Hopea pterygota, a flowering plant in the Dipterocarpaceae family
- Pterygota (plant), a genus of plants in the Sterculiaceae family
Pterygota is a genus of flowering plants in the family Malvaceae.
In older systems of classification, it was placed in Sterculiaceae, but all members of that family are now in an expanded Malvaceae.
Pterygota has a pantropical distribution.