Macroheterocera

Macroheterocera
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Infraorder:	Heteroneura
Clade:	Eulepidoptera
Clade:	Ditrysia
Clade:	Apoditrysia
Clade:	Obtectomera
Clade:	Macroheterocera ; Chapman, 1893

Last updated October 24, 2025

The Macroheterocera are a well supported clade^{[ citation needed ]} of moths that are closely related to butterflies and macro-moths.^[1]^[2]

Taxonomy

The Macroheterocera includes the following superfamilies:^[1]^[2]

Mimallonoidea – sack bearers (variously included in basal position^[2] or excluded^[1])
Drepanoidea – drepanids
Noctuoidea – owlet moths
Geometroidea – inchworms
Lasiocampoidea – lappet moths
Bombycoidea – bombycoid moths

The macroheteroceran superfamilies were previously place in the Macrolepidoptera, but recent molecular studies have failed to recover the Macrolepidoptera as a monophyletic group.^[1]^[2] The latter grouping also included butterflies (Papilionoidea) and Old World butterfly-moths (Calliduloidea).

References

1 2 3 4 van Nieukerken, Erik J.; Lauri Kaila; Ian J. Kitching; Niels P. Kristensen; David C. Lees; Joël Minet; Charles Mitter; Marko Mutanen; Jerome C. Regier; Thomas J. Simonsen; Niklas Wahlberg; Shen-Horn Yen; Reza Zahiri; David Adamski; Joaquin Baixeras; Daniel Bartsch; Bengt Å. Bengtsson; John W. Brown; Sibyl Rae Bucheli; Donald R. Davis; Jurate De Prins; Willy De Prins; Marc E. Epstein; Patricia Gentili-Poole; Cees Gielis; Peter Hättenschwiler; Axel Hausmann; Jeremy D. Holloway; Axel Kallies; Ole Karsholt; Akito Y. Kawahara; Sjaak (J.C.) Koster; Mikhail V. Kozlov; J. Donald Lafontaine; Gerardo Lamas; Jean-François Landry; Sangmi Lee; Matthias Nuss; Kyu-Tek Park; Carla Penz; Jadranka Rota; Alexander Schintlmeister; B. Christian Schmidt; Jae-Cheon Sohn; M. Alma Solis; Gerhard M. Tarmann; Andrew D. Warren; Susan Weller; Roman V. Yakovlev; Vadim V. Zolotuhin; Andreas Zwick (23 December 2011). Zhang, Zhi-Qiang (ed.). "Order Lepidoptera Linnaeus, 1758" (PDF). Zootaxa. Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classification and survey of taxonomic richness. 3148: 212–221.
1 2 3 4 Mitter, Charles; Davis, Donald R.; Cummings, Michael P. (2017). "Phylogeny and Evolution of Lepidoptera". Annual Review of Entomology. 62 (1): 265–283. doi: 10.1146/annurev-ento-031616-035125 . ISSN 0066-4170.

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[vanNieukerken2011-1] 1 2 3 4 van Nieukerken, Erik J.; Lauri Kaila; Ian J. Kitching; Niels P. Kristensen; David C. Lees; Joël Minet; Charles Mitter; Marko Mutanen; Jerome C. Regier; Thomas J. Simonsen; Niklas Wahlberg; Shen-Horn Yen; Reza Zahiri; David Adamski; Joaquin Baixeras; Daniel Bartsch; Bengt Å. Bengtsson; John W. Brown; Sibyl Rae Bucheli; Donald R. Davis; Jurate De Prins; Willy De Prins; Marc E. Epstein; Patricia Gentili-Poole; Cees Gielis; Peter Hättenschwiler; Axel Hausmann; Jeremy D. Holloway; Axel Kallies; Ole Karsholt; Akito Y. Kawahara; Sjaak (J.C.) Koster; Mikhail V. Kozlov; J. Donald Lafontaine; Gerardo Lamas; Jean-François Landry; Sangmi Lee; Matthias Nuss; Kyu-Tek Park; Carla Penz; Jadranka Rota; Alexander Schintlmeister; B. Christian Schmidt; Jae-Cheon Sohn; M. Alma Solis; Gerhard M. Tarmann; Andrew D. Warren; Susan Weller; Roman V. Yakovlev; Vadim V. Zolotuhin; Andreas Zwick (23 December 2011). Zhang, Zhi-Qiang (ed.). "Order Lepidoptera Linnaeus, 1758" (PDF). Zootaxa. Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classification and survey of taxonomic richness. 3148: 212–221.

[MitterDavis2017-2] 1 2 3 4 Mitter, Charles; Davis, Donald R.; Cummings, Michael P. (2017). "Phylogeny and Evolution of Lepidoptera". Annual Review of Entomology. 62 (1): 265–283. doi: 10.1146/annurev-ento-031616-035125 . ISSN 0066-4170.

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