''Coelopoeta'' is a relatively divergent

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of small

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

s in the superfamily

Gelechioidea __NOTOC__ Gelechioidea (from the type genus ''Gelechia ''Gelechia'' is a genus of moths in the family Gelechiidae. The type species is '' Gelechia rhombella''. Species *Subgenus ''Gelechia'' **'' Gelechia asinella'' (Hubner, 1796) **'' Gel ...

, which have only been found in western North America. Its relationships have been interpreted differently over the past century. It has been placed in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Elachistidae The Elachistidae (grass-miner moths) are a family of small moths in the superfamily Gelechioidea. Some authors lump about 3,300 species in eight subfamilies here, but this arrangement almost certainly results in a massively paraphyletic and comp ...

, the family

Oecophoridae Oecophoridae (concealer moths) is a family of small moths in the superfamily Gelechioidea. The phylogeny and systematics of gelechoid moths are still not fully resolved, and the circumscription of the Oecophoridae is strongly affected by this. ...

, and the subfamily Coelopoetinae within the Elachistidae.

Taxonomy

It was described from

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

in 1907 as a

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

genus by

Thomas de Grey, 6th Baron Walsingham Thomas de Grey, 6th Baron Walsingham (29 July 1843 – 3 December 1919), of Merton Hall, Norfolk, was an English politician and amateur entomologist. Biography Walsingham was the son of Thomas de Grey, 5th Baron Walsingham, and Augusta-Louis ...

to house the new species ''C. glutinosi'', which is therefore the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...

. Lord Walsingham placed the genus in the family Hyponomeutidae. A second species from California was added in 1920 by

William Barnes William Barnes (22 February 1801 – 7 October 1886) was an English polymath, writer, poet, philologist, priest, mathematician, engraving artist and inventor. He wrote over 800 poems, some in Dorset dialect, and much other work, including a co ...

and August Busck, ''C. baldella'', based on supposed colour differences with the type species, and the genus was moved to the family

by these two authors in the same paper. This new taxon was then synonymised with ''C. glutinosi'' by Annette F. Braun in 1948 due to the insects being morphologically identical and found on the same food plants, rendering the genus monotypic again. This interpretation of synonymy was upheld by Ronald W. Hodges in 1983,

Lauri Kaila Lauri Kaila is a Finnish entomologist and researcher of biodiversity, specializing in Lepidoptera, at the Finnish Museum of Natural History of the University of Helsinki. As of 2018, Kaila authored 171 species within the family of Elachistidae ...

in 1995, and van Nieukerken ''et al''. in 2011. Braun also placed the genus in the family Elachistidae in her 1948 monograph on the North American members of the family, based on the morphology of the mouth parts, the antenna and the wing venation, although she mentions the divergent

genitalia A sex organ (or reproductive organ) is any part of an animal or plant that is involved in sexual reproduction. The reproductive organs together constitute the reproductive system. In animals, the testis in the male, and the ovary in the female, a ...

compared to the rest of the family. Hodges was the first to classified the one species in its own subfamily, the Coelopoetinae of the Elachistidae, in 1978, although he mentions doubting if the new subgenus might not better be placed in the Oecophorini. and in the 1983 ''Check List of the Lepidoptera of America North of Mexico'' (in which it is numbered 1076) he retained this classification. In 1995 Kaila reviewed the genus ''Coelopoeta'' and continued to include it in the family Elachistidae. He described two new species, one from high elevations in California and another from the

Yukon Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...

in Canada. Brown ''et al''. classified the genus in the subfamily

Oecophorinae __NOTOC__ The Oecophorinae are the nominate subfamily of moths in the concealer moth family (Oecophoridae). They are part of the insufficiently studied superfamily Gelechioidea, and like their relatives, the circumscription of this taxon is dis ...

of the Oecophoridae in 2004. In Zhi-Qiang Zhang's 2011 attempt to number all the known animal species of earth, van Nieukerken ''et al''., the authors of the section on Lepidoptera, recognised the Coelopoetidae as an independent, monotypic family within the superfamily

, comprising three species in the genus ''Coelopoeta''. Three years later, in 2014, a

cladistic Cladistics (; ) is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups ("clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived char ...

analysis by Heikkilä ''et al''. moved the genus to the subfamily Coelopoetinae of the family Pterolonchidae.

Species

* '' Coelopoeta glutinosi'' Walsingham, 1907 -

* '' Coelopoeta phaceliae''

Kaila Kaila may refer to: People with the surname Kaila: * Eino Kaila (1890-1958), Finnish philosopher, critic and teacher * Erkki Kaila (1867–1944), Finnish theologian, Archbishop of Turku * Lauri Kaila, Finnish entomologist and researcher of biodi ...

, 1995 - California * '' Coelopoeta maiadella'' Kaila, 1995 -

Distribution

''Coelopoeta'' is native to western North America, from

to the

, although none are recorded from

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyomi ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Ecology

The caterpillars of ''C. glutinosi''

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

within the leaves of '' Eriodictyon'' plant species, those of ''C. phaceliae'' are hosted on species of ''

Phacelia ''Phacelia'' (phacelia, scorpionweed, heliotrope) is a genus of about 200 species of annual or perennial herbaceous plants in the borage family, native to North and South America. California is particularly rich in species with over 90 recorded ...

''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5140679 Gelechioidea Moth genera