Neoptera

Neoptera (Ancient Greek néos ("new") + pterón ("wing")) is a classification group that includes most orders of the winged insects, specifically those that can flex their wings over their abdomens. This is in contrast with the more basal orders of winged insects (the "Palaeoptera" assemblage), which are unable to flex their wings in this way.

The Exopterygota (Ancient Greek ἔξω (éxō, "outside") + πτερόν (pterón, "wing") + Neo-Latin -ota ("having")), also known as Hemimetabola, are a superorder of insects of the subclass Pterygota in the infraclass Neoptera, in which the young resemble adults but have externally developing wings. They undergo a modest change between immature and adult, without going through a pupal stage. The nymphs develop gradually into adults through a process of moulting.

The cohort Polyneoptera is one of the major groups of winged insects, comprising the Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets, etc.) and all other neopteran insects believed to be more closely related to Orthoptera than to any other insect orders. They were formerly grouped together with the Palaeoptera and Paraneoptera as the Hemimetabola or Exopterygota on the grounds that they have no pupa, the wings gradually developing externally throughout the nymphal stages; their metamorphosis is deemed "incomplete". Many members of the group have leathery forewings (tegmina) and hindwings with an enlarged a

Eumetabola is an unranked clade of Neoptera. Two large unities known as the Eumetabola and Paurometabola are probably from the adelphotaxa of the Neoptera after exclusion of the Plecoptera. The monophyly of these unities appears to be weakly justified.