Hepialoidea

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Hepialoidea
Phymatopus hecta3.jpg
Phymatopus hecta
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Infraorder: Exoporia
Superfamily: Hepialoidea
Stephens, 1829
Families
Diversity
67 genera and at least 617 species

The Hepialoidea are the superfamily of "ghost moths" and "swift moths". [1]

Contents

Fossils

Fossil Hepialoidea appear to be few. [2] Prohepialus (possibly Hepialidae) has been described from the about 35-million-year-old Bembridge marls of Isle of Wight. [3] A mid-Miocene hepialoid fossil is also known from China. [4]

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hepialidae</span> Family of moths

The Hepialidae are a family of insects in the lepidopteran order. Moths of this family are often referred to as swift moths or ghost moths.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drepanidae</span> Family containing the hook-tip moths

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<i>Heterobathmia</i> Sole genus of moth suborder Heterobathmiina

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schreckensteiniidae</span> Family of moths

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drepanoidea</span> Superfamily of moths

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nepticuloidea</span> Superfamily of moths

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Copromorphidae</span> Family of moths

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Epicopeiidae</span> Family of moths

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Whalleyana is an enigmatic genus of moths in the lepidopteran group Obtectomera, endemic to Madagascar. The genus contains two species, whose biology are unknown. The genus had been placed in the picture-winged leaf moths, (Thyrididae), but then was placed in its own family, and later elevated to its own superfamily ; see also Fänger (2004). The genus was named after Paul E. S. Whalley, a British entomologist. Genomic studies have found them to be most closely related to Callidulidae, and it is suggested that they should be placed in Calliduloidea.

The Palaeosetidae or miniature ghost moths are a family of insects in the order Lepidoptera contained within the superfamily Hepialoidea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Opostegidae</span> Family of moths

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.

Neotheoridae, or Amazonian primitive ghost moths, is a primitive family of insects in the lepidopteran order containing a single genus and species, Neotheora chiloides.

Prototheora is a genus of moths. It is the only genus of the Prototheoridae, or the African primitive ghost moths, a family of insects in the lepidopteran order, contained in the superfamily Hepialoidea. These moths are endemic to Southern Africa.

The Exoporia are a group of primitive Lepidoptera comprising the superfamilies Mnesarchaeoidea and Hepialoidea. They are a natural group or clade. Exoporia is the sister group of the lepidopteran infraorder Heteroneura. They are characterised by their unique female reproductive system which has an external groove between the ostium bursae and the ovipore by which the sperm is transferred to the egg rather than having the mating and egg-laying parts of the abdomen with a common opening (cloaca) as in other nonditrysian moths, or with separate openings linked internally by a "ductus seminalis" as in the Ditrysia. See Kristensen for other exoporian characteristics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monotrysia</span> Group of moths

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Micropterigidae</span> Family of primitive moths

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.

References

  1. Kristensen, N. P. (1999). The homoneurous Glossata. pp. 51–63 In: Kristensen, N.P. (ed.), Lepidoptera, Moths and Butterflies, 1: Evolution, Systematics, and Biogeography. Handbook of Zoology, volume 4 (35). Walter de Gruyter. Berlin, New York.
  2. Kristensen, N. P. and Skalski, A.W. (1999). Phylogeny and paleontology. Pages 7-25 in: Lepidoptera: Moths and Butterflies. 1. Evolution, Systematics, and Biogeography. Handbook of Zoology Vol. IV, Part 35. N. P. Kristensen, ed. De Gruyter, Berlin and New York
  3. Jarzembowski, E.A. (1980). Fossil, insects from the Bembridge Marls, Palaeogene of the Isle of Wight, southern England. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) (Geology), 33: 237-293.
  4. Zhang, J. (1989). Fossil insects from Shanwung, Shandong, China. Shandong Science and Technology Publishing House.