Covalent lipid modifications of proteins

Is it fair to say that Micromalthus is an ancient, primitive beetle? Many of Micromalthus’ anatomical characters are indeed primitive, in the sense of resembling the most recent ancestor it shares with other beetles, but of course its life cycle is anything but. No one thinks the ancestral beetle — or the ancestors of any other living beetles — had Micromalthus’ bizarre genetic and developmental system. Micromalthus can be seen as a particularly extreme example of ‘mosaic evolution’ — the evolution of different characters at different rates — and of why it’s probably not a good idea to call any species ‘primitive’ even if it looks that way superficially.