Dragonfly wings Dipteran (fly) wing Monarch butterfly wing Lacewing wings Litinsects #34: Insect Wings Let’s talk wings. The ability to fly has existed in only 4 groups of animals: birds , bats , pterosaurs , and of course insects . The first three groups, all vertebrates, each evolved flight independently (in other words, they have no winged ancestor in common) and the wings replace a pair of limbs. Insect wings on the other hand, which first showed up around 400 million years ago, are not derived from legs but are completely separate structures. The big debate about the evolution of insect wings is whether they developed from pre-existing structures (like gills or extensions of the thorax) or were entirely new structures. There is very little fossil evidence documenting this evolutionary transition so no one has yet definitively answered this question... Insect wings attach to the second and third thoracic segments. At rest they may be held vertically over the back, horizontally ou...
Weekly fun facts about the world of insects