Incurvariidae is a family of small primitive

monotrysia The Monotrysia are a group of moths in the lepidopteran order, not currently considered to be a natural group or clade. Apart from the recently discovered family Andesianidae, most of the group consists of small, relatively understudied species ...

n moths in the order

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) is an order (biology), order of insects that includes butterfly, butterflies and moths (both are called lepidopterans). About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera are described, in 126 Family (biology), families and 46 Taxonomic r ...

. There are twelve

genera 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 nomenclat ...

recognised (Davis, 1999). Many species are

leaf mine A leaf miner is any one of numerous species of insects in which the larval stage lives in, and eats, the leaf tissue of plants. The vast majority of leaf-mining insects are moths ( Lepidoptera), sawflies ( Symphyta, the mother clade of wasp ...

rs and much is known of their host plants, excluding ''

Paraclemensia acerifoliella ''Paraclemensia acerifoliella'', the maple leafcutter moth, is a moth of the family Incurvariidae. It is found from south-eastern Canada and the north-eastern United States, south to the tip of the Appalachian Mountains in western North Carolina ...

''. The most familiar species in Europe are perhaps ''

Incurvaria masculella ''Incurvaria masculella'', the feathered diamond-back, is a moth of the family Incurvariidae. It is found in Europe. The wingspan is 12–16 mm.Head pale ochreous, ferruginous-tinged. Forewings rather dark purplish bronzy-fuscous ; a whit ...

'' and ''

Phylloporia bistrigella ''Phylloporia bistrigella'' is a moth of the family Incurvariidae. It is found in western, northern and central Europe and north-eastern North America. The wingspan is 7–9 mm.7-8 nnn. Head ochreous -fuscous. Forewings fuscous; a straigh ...

''. The narrow wings are held tightly along the body at rest and some species have very long antennae.

References

*Davis, D.R. (1999). The Monotrysian Heteroneura. Ch. 6, pp. 65–90 in Kristensen, N.P. (Ed.). ''Lepidoptera, Moths and Butterflies''. Volume 1: Evolution, Systematics, and Biogeography. Handbuch der Zoologie. Eine Naturgeschichte der Stämme des Tierreiches / Handbook of Zoology. A Natural History of the phyla of the Animal Kingdom. Band / Volume IV Arthropoda: Insecta Teilband / Part 35: 491 pp. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York.

External links

Tree of LifeFauna EuropaeaNatural History Museum Hosts databaseAvailable generic names Butterflies and Moths of the World Generic Names and their Type-speciesLepIndex list of species and genera in family IncurvariidaeFauna Europaea
* * Moth families {{Incurvarioidea-stub