The Ditrysia are a natural group or clade of insects in the lepidopteran order containing both butterflies and moths. They are so named because the female has two distinct sexual openings: one for mating, and the other for laying eggs.
Riodinidae is the family of metalmark butterflies. The common name "metalmarks" refers to the small, metallic-looking spots commonly found on their wings. The 1532 species are placed in 146 genera. Although mostly Neotropical in distribution, the family is also represented both in the Nearctic, Palearctic, Australasian (Dicallaneura), Afrotropic, and Indomalayan realms.
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.
Drepanoidea is the superfamily of "hook tip moths". See Minet and Scoble (1999) for a comprehensive overview.
Gelechioidea is the superfamily of moths that contains the case-bearers, twirler moths, and relatives, also simply called curved-horn moths or gelechioid moths. It is a large and poorly understood '"micromoth" superfamily, constituting one of the basal lineages of the Ditrysia.
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.
Callidulidae, the only known family of the superfamily Calliduloidea, is the family of Old World butterfly-moths, containing eight genera. They have a peculiar distribution, restricted to the Old World tropics of Southeast Asia to Australasia and Madagascar. The three subfamilies exhibit both day- and night-flying behaviour.
Hedylidae, the "American moth-butterflies", is a family of insects in the order Lepidoptera, representing the superfamily Hedyloidea. They have traditionally been viewed as an extant sister group of the butterfly superfamily Papilionoidea. They are represented by a single Neotropical genus Macrosoma with 35 currently recognized species.
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.
Sematuridae is a family of moths in the lepidopteran order that contains two subfamilies.
Acanthopteroctetidae is a small family of primitive moths with two described genera, Acanthopteroctetes and Catapterix, and a total of seven described species. They are known as the archaic sun moths.
The insect order Lepidoptera consists of moths, most of which are night-flying, and a derived group, mainly day-flying, called butterflies. Within Lepidoptera as a whole, the groups listed below before Glossata contain a few basal families accounting for less than 200 species; the bulk of Lepidoptera are in the Glossata. Similarly, within the Glossata, there are a few basal groups listed first, with the bulk of species in the Heteroneura. Basal groups within Heteroneura cannot be defined with as much confidence, as there are still some disputes concerning the proper relations among these groups. At the family level, however, most groups are well defined, and the families are commonly used by hobbyists and scientists alike.
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.
The Obtectomera is a clade of macro-moths and butterflies, comprising over 100,000 species in at least 12 superfamilies.
Cossina is the name for both a section and subsection of Ditrysian insects in the order containing both butterflies and moths having a dorsal heart vessel. The section named Cossina contains two subsections: one also named Cossina having pupae with dorsal spines; and subsection Bombycina having spineless pupae.
Epimarptidae was a former, or is a possible, monotypic family of moths in the moth superfamily Gelechioidea. It can now be seen as either a synonym of family Batrachedridae, or a monotypic subfamily of that family.
Bombycina is the name for a subsection of Ditrysian insects in order containing both butterflies and moths having a dorsal heart vessel. Subsection Bombycina contains generally larger sized moths and butterflies in the superfamilies Bombycoidea, Calliduloidea, Cimelioidea, Drepanoidea, Geometroidea, Noctuoidea, and Papilionoidea, having spineless pupae.
The Macroheterocera are a well supported clade of moths that are closely related to butterflies and other macro-moths.
