Timematodea is a small suborder of stick insects, believed to be the earliest diverging living branch of the group. It contains only one living genus, Timema, known from the western United States, as well as two fossil genera, Granosicorpes and Tumefactipes from the early Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) aged Burmese amber of Myanmar, all three of which are assigned to the family Timematidae. Another genus, Electrotimema, from Eocene aged Baltic amber, has also been assigned to the suborder, but its precise placement is uncertain, as the diagnostic features of the tarsi were cited inconsistently, so it is unclear whether they are 5-segmented or 3-segmented.[1] A key diagnostic character of the family Timematidae is 3-segmented tarsi, and 5-segmented tarsi would suggest Electrotimema is not a timematid.[1]
| Timematodea Temporal range:
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| Timema sp. | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Phasmatodea |
| Suborder: | Timematodea Kevan, 1982 |
| Family: | Timematidae Caudell, 1903 |
| Genera | |
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References
edit- ^ a b Chen, Sha; Deng, Shi-Wo; Shih, Chungkun; Zhang, Wei-Wei; Zhang, Peng; Ren, Dong; Zhu, Yi-Ning; Gao, Tai-Ping (October 2019). "The earliest timematids in Burmese amber reveal diverse tarsal pads of stick insects in the mid-Cretaceous". Insect Science. 26 (5): 945–957. Bibcode:2019InsSc..26..945C. doi:10.1111/1744-7917.12601. ISSN 1672-9609. PMID 29700985. S2CID 13787599.
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