Xenarthra is a major clade of placental mammals native to the Americas. There are 31 living species: the anteaters, tree sloths, and armadillos. Extinct xenarthrans include the glyptodonts, pampatheres and ground sloths. Xenarthrans originated in South America during the Paleocene about 59 million years ago. They evolved and diversified extensively in South America during the continent's long period of isolation in the early to mid Cenozoic Era. They spread to the Antilles by the early Miocene and, starting about 3 Mya, spread to Central and North America as part of the Great American Interchange. Nearly all of the formerly abundant megafaunal xenarthrans became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene.
The Pyralidae, commonly called pyralid moths, snout moths or grass moths, are a family of Lepidoptera in the ditrysian superfamily Pyraloidea. In many classifications, the grass moths (Crambidae) are included in the Pyralidae as a subfamily, making the combined group one of the largest families in the Lepidoptera. The latest review by Eugene G. Munroe and Maria Alma Solis retain the Crambidae as a full family of Pyraloidea.
The pale-throated sloth, occasionally known as the ai, is a species of three-toed sloth that inhabits tropical rainforests in northern South America.
The maned sloth is a three-toed sloth that lives only in Brazil. It is one of four species of three-toed sloth.
The brown-throated sloth is a species of three-toed sloth found in the Neotropical realm of Central and South America.
Hoffmann's two-toed sloth, also known as the northern two-toed sloth is a species of sloth from Central and South America.
Choloepus is a genus of xenarthran mammals of Central and South America within the monotypic family Choloepodidae, consisting of two-toed sloths. The two species of Choloepus, Linnaeus's two-toed sloth and Hoffmann's two-toed sloth, were formerly believed on the basis of morphological studies to be the only surviving members of the sloth family Megalonychidae, but have now been shown by molecular results to be closest to extinct ground sloths of the family Mylodontidae.
The three-toed sloths are arboreal neotropical mammals. They are the only members of the genus Bradypus and the family Bradypodidae. The four living species of three-toed sloths are the brown-throated sloth, the maned sloth, the pale-throated sloth, and the pygmy three-toed sloth. In complete contrast to past morphological studies, which tended to place Bradypus as the sister group to all other folivorans, molecular studies place them nested within the sloth superfamily Megatherioidea, making them the only surviving members of that radiation.
Sloths are a group of arboreal Neotropical xenarthran mammals, constituting the suborder Folivora. Noted for their slowness of movement, they spend most of their lives hanging upside down in the trees of the tropical rainforests of South America and Central America. They are considered to be most closely related to anteaters, together making up the xenarthran order Pilosa.
The pygmy three-toed sloth, also known as the monk sloth or dwarf sloth, is a sloth endemic to Isla Escudo de Veraguas, a small island off the Caribbean coast of Panama. The species was first described by Robert P. Anderson of the University of Kansas and Charles O. Handley Jr., of the Smithsonian Institution in 2001. The pygmy three-toed sloth is significantly smaller than the other three members of its genus, but otherwise resembles the brown-throated three-toed sloth. According to Anderson and Handley Jr., the head-and-body length is between 48 and 53 centimetres, and the body mass ranges from 2.5 to 3.5 kg.
Thalassocnus is an extinct genus of semiaquatic ground sloths from the Miocene and Pliocene of the Pacific South American coast. It is monotypic within the subfamily Thalassocninae. The five species—T. antiquus, T. natans, T. littoralis, T. carolomartini, and T. yuacensis—represent a chronospecies, a population gradually adapting to marine life in one direct lineage. They are the only known aquatic sloths. They have been found in the Pisco Formation of Peru and the Bahía Inglesa, Coquimbo, and Horcón formations of Chile. Thalassocninae has been placed in both the families Megatheriidae and Nothrotheriidae.
Terastia is a genus of snout moths in the subfamily Spilomelinae of the family Crambidae. It was described by Achille Guenée in 1854 with Terastia meticulosalis as type species. The genus is currently placed in the tribe Margaroniini, where it is closely related to the genera Agathodes and Liopasia.
Bradypodicola hahneli is a sloth moth in the family Pyralidae that lives exclusively in the fur of the pale-throated three-toed sloth, a three-toed sloth found in South America. It is the only species of the genus Bradypodicola.
Cryptoses choloepi is a sloth moth in the snout moth family that as an adult lives exclusively in the fur of sloths, mammals found in South and Central America.
A large number of arthropods are associated with sloths. These include biting and blood-sucking flies such as mosquitoes and sandflies, triatomine bugs, lice, ticks and mites. The sloth’s fur forms a micro-ecozone inhabited by green algae and hundreds of insects. Sloths have a highly specific community of commensal beetles, mites and moths.
Phoresis or phoresy is a non-permanent, commensalistic interaction in which one organism attaches itself to another solely for the purpose of travel. Phoresis has been observed directly in ticks and mites since the 18th century, and indirectly in fossils 320 million years old. It is not restricted to arthropods or animals; plants with seeds that disperse by attaching themselves to animals are also considered to be phoretic.
The Chrysauginae are a subfamily of snout moths. They are primarily Neotropical and include about 400 described species.
Cryptoses rufipictus is a species of snout moth in the genus Cryptoses. It was described by John David Bradley in 1982 and is known from French Guiana and Brazil.
Cryptoses waagei is a species of snout moth in the genus Cryptoses. It was described by John David Bradley in 1982 and is found in Brazil.
The following are the regional Lepidoptera lists by continent. Lepidoptera is the insect order consisting of both the butterflies and moths.
