180,000 species of Lepidoptera are described, equivalent to 10% of the total described species of living organisms. This is a list of the diversity of the Lepidoptera showing the estimated number of genera and species described for each superfamily and, where available, family. See Lepidoptera for a note of the schedule of families used.
The Drepanidae are a family of moths with about 660 species described worldwide. They are generally divided in three subfamilies, which share the same type of hearing organ. Thyatirinae, previously often placed in their own family, bear a superficial resemblance to Noctuidae. Many species in the drepanid family have a distinctively hook-shaped apex to the fore wing, leading to their common name of hook-tips.
The Prodoxidae are a family of moths, generally small in size and nondescript in appearance. They include species of moderate pest status, such as the currant shoot borer, and others of considerable ecological and evolutionary interest, such as various species of "yucca moths".
Nolidae is a family of moths with about 1,700 described species worldwide. They are mostly small with dull coloration, the main distinguishing feature being a silk cocoon with a vertical exit slit. The group is sometimes known as tuft moths, after the tufts of raised scales on the forewings of two subfamilies, Nolinae and Collomeninae. The larvae also tend to have muted colors and tufts of short hairs.
Sesioidea is a superfamily containing clearwing moths (Sesiidae), castniid moths (Castniidae) and little bear moths (Brachodidae). There is evidence from head and thoracic morphology that the first two families, internally feeding in plants as caterpillars, are sisters, whilst some brachodids are known to feed on leaf surfaces. Sesioidea is closely related to Cossoidea, which contains the also internal-feeding Goat and Leopard moths, and recent taxonomic treatments consider the sessoid families as part of Cossoidea sensu lato.
Nepticuloidea is a superfamily of usually very small monotrysian moths that are characterised by small or large eyecaps over the compound eyes. It comprises two families, the "pigmy moths" (Nepticulidae), with 12 genera which are very diverse worldwide and are usually leaf miners, and the "white eyecap moths" (Opostegidae), also worldwide but with five genera and about a ninth as many species, whose biology is less well known.
Adeloidea is a superfamily of primitive monotrysian moths in the order Lepidoptera which consists of leafcutters, yucca moths and relatives. This superfamily is characterised by a piercing, extensible ovipositor used for laying eggs in plants. Many species are day-flying with metallic patterns.
Palaephatoidea is a superfamily of insects in the order Lepidoptera with a single family, Palaephatidae with seven known genera. These "Gondwanaland moths" exhibit a disjunct distribution occurring mainly in South America, with four species in eastern Australia and Tasmania and one in South Africa. The larvae spin together leaves of Proteaceae (Ptyssoptera) or Verbenaceae (Azaleodes) . Palaephatoidea, a typical monotrysian group, is one two main candidates as the sister group of most of the Lepidoptera, the Ditrysia.
Tischerioidea is the superfamily of "trumpet" leaf miner moths. The superfamily contains just one family, Tischeriidae, and traditionally one genus, Tischeria, but currently three genera are recognised, widespread around the world including South America, except for Australasia. This is one candidate as the sister group of the bulk of Lepidoptera, the Ditrysia, and they have a monotrysian type of female reproductive system. These small moths are leaf-miners in the caterpillar stage, feeding mainly on Fagaceae, Asteraceae, and Malvaceae (Astrotischeria), and some also on Rhamnaceae, Tiliaceae, and Rosaceae.
Cossoidea is the superfamily of moths that includes carpenter moths and relatives. Like their likely sister group Sesioidea they are internal feeders and have spiny pupae with moveable segments to allow them to extrude out of their exit holes in stems and trunks during emergence of the adult.
Coelolepida is a clade of insects in the lepidopteran order, containing the infraorders Acanthoctesia, Lophocoronina, Neopseustina, Exoporia and Heteroneura, with the latter three grouped in clade Myoglossata.
Nepticulidae is a family of very small moths with a worldwide distribution. They are characterised by eyecaps over the eyes. These pigmy moths or midget moths, as they are commonly known, include the smallest of all living moths, with a wingspan that can be as little as 3 mm in the case of the European pigmy sorrel moth, but more usually 3.5–10 mm. The wings of adult moths are narrow and lanceolate, sometimes with metallic markings, and with the venation very simplified compared to most other moths.
Incurvariidae is a family of small primitive monotrysian moths in the order Lepidoptera. There are twelve genera recognised. Many species are leaf miners and much is known of their host plants, excluding Paraclemensia acerifoliella. The most familiar species in Europe are perhaps Incurvaria masculella and Phylloporia bistrigella. The narrow wings are held tightly along the body at rest and some species have very long antennae.
The Adelidae or fairy longhorn moths are a family of monotrysian moths in the lepidopteran infraorder Heteroneura. The family was first described by Charles Théophile Bruand d'Uzelle in 1851. Most species have at least partially metallic, patterned coloration and are diurnal, sometimes swarming around the tips of branches with an undulating flight. Others are crepuscular and have a drab coloration. Fairy longhorn moths have a wingspan of 4–28 millimeters, and males often have especially long antennae, 1–3 times as long as the forewing.
Cecidosidae is a family of primitive monotrysian moths in the order Lepidoptera which have a piercing ovipositor used for laying eggs in plant tissue in which they induce galls, or they mine in bark. Nine species occur in southern Africa, five species in South America and Xanadoses nielseni was recently described from New Zealand. Some minute parasitoid wasps are known.
Carposinoidea, the "fruitworm moths", is a superfamily of insects in the lepidopteran order. The superfamily is also known as Copromorphoidea, which is a junior synonym. These moths are small to medium-sized and are broad-winged bearing some resemblance to the superfamilies Tortricoidea and Immoidea. The antennae are often "pectinate" especially in males, and many species of these well camouflaged moths bear raised tufts of scales on the wings and a specialised fringe of scales at the base of the hindwing sometimes in females only; there are a number of other structural characteristics. The position of this superfamily is not certain, but it has been placed in the natural group of "Apoditrysia" "Obtectomera", rather than with the superfamilies Alucitoidea or Epermenioidea within which it has sometimes previously been placed, on the grounds that shared larval and pupal characteristics of these groups have probably evolved independently. It has been suggested that the division into two families should be abandoned.
Opostegidae or "white eyecap moths" is a family of insects in the order Lepidoptera that is characterised by particularly large eyecaps over the compound eyes. Opostegidae are most diverse in the New World tropics.
The Monotrysia are a group of moths in the lepidopteran order, not currently considered to be a natural group or clade. The group is so named because the female has a single genital opening for mating and laying eggs, in contrast to the rest of the Lepidoptera (Ditrysia), which have two female reproductive openings. Later classifications used Monotrysia in a narrower sense for the nonditrysian Heteroneura, but this group was also found to be paraphyletic with respect to Ditrysia. Apart from the recently discovered family Andesianidae, most of the group consists of small, relatively understudied species.
Cimeliidae, the gold moths, is a family of moths that is now placed in the macroheteroceran superfamily Drepanoidea, although previously placed in its own superfamily. Uniquely, they have a pair of pocket-like organs on the seventh abdominal spiracle of the adult moth which are only possibly sound receptive organs. They are quite large and brightly coloured moths that occur in southern Europe and feed on species of Euphorbia. Sometimes they are attracted to light. The family was first described by Pierre Chrétien in 1916.
Micropterigoidea is the superfamily of "mandibulate archaic moths", all placed in the single family Micropterigidae, containing currently about twenty living genera. They are considered the most primitive extant lineage of lepidoptera, and the sole superfamily in the suborder Zeugloptera. The name comes from the Greek for mikros, little and pterux, a wing. Unique among the Lepidoptera, these moths have chewing mouthparts rather than a proboscis, and are seen feeding, often in large aggregations, on the pollen of the flowers of many herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees. The fossil record of the group goes back to the middle-late Jurassic with the earliest known species being Auliepterix from the Karabastau Formation in Kazakhstan.
