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Titanoptera is an extinct order of insects from late Carboniferous to Triassic periods. Titanopterans were very large in comparison with modern insects, some having wingspans of up to or even .
An examination of a fossil of the oldest titanopteran genus, Theiatitan, seems to indicate that titanopterans did not utilize stridulation (unlike modern orthopterans), but rather used flashes of light from wing displays and crepitation, moving their wings to produce sound. The authors argue that stridulation, crepitation, castanet signaling or light flash alone do not fully explains the diversity of structures observed in Titanoptera, and note that both sexes seem to have the fluted region on the forewing. Theiatian is 50 Ma older than the previous oldest species of Titanoptera, and thus Theiatitan would be the oldest known insect with a wing structure specialized for communication. Some titanopterans may have been able to only glide, not fly, such as Gigatitan vulgaris. The hind wing area of it is almost the same as that of Pseudophyllanax imperialis, one of the largest modern Orthoptera, and a poor flier, but Gigatitan is larger in volume. All known hind wings of Titanoptera, whatever their sizes, have quite reduced Insect wing, while most extant flying Orthoptera have large ones.
Other than Theiatitan, reliable records of titanopterans are known from Kyrgyzstan, Australia and South Korea. Considering some possible records from Russia as well, titanopterans possibly had a circum-Tethys Ocean distribution.
Order Titanoptera
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