''Phalaena'' is an obsolete genus of

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 ...

used by Carl Linnaeus to house most moths. ''Phalaena'' was one of three genera used by Linnaeus to cover all

. ''

Papilio ''Papilio'' is a genus in the swallowtail butterfly family, Papilionidae, as well as the only representative of the tribe Papilionini. The word ''papilio'' is Latin for butterfly. It includes the common yellow swallowtail (''Papilio machaon''), ...

'' included all

butterflies Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

at that time, '' Sphinx'' included all hawk moths, and ''Phalaena'' included all the remaining moths. The type species was ''Phalaena typica'' (now ''

Naenia typica The Gothic (''Naenia typica'') is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''. It is distributed in temperate Eurasia, in the Palearctic realm, including Europe ...

'' in the family

Noctuidae The Noctuidae, commonly known as owlet moths, cutworms or armyworms, are a family of moths. They are considered the most controversial family in the superfamily Noctuoidea because many of the clades are constantly changing, along with the other f ...

). ''Phalaena'' has been declared a ' by the

International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is an organization dedicated to "achieving stability and sense in the scientific naming of animals". Founded in 1895, it currently comprises 26 commissioners from 20 countries. Orga ...

, for the purposes of priority, but not

homonymy In linguistics, homonyms are words which are homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of pronunciation), or homophones (equivocal words, that share the same pronunciation, regardless of spelling), or both. Using this definition, ...

. Seven

subgenera In biology, a subgenus (plural: subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between t ...

were raised to the rank of genus as follows: *''Alucita'' Linnaeus, 1767 – Alucitidae *''Attacus'' Linnaeus, 1767 – Saturniidae *''Bombyx'' Linnaeus, 1758 – Bombycidae *''Geometra'' Linnaeus, 1758 – Geometridae *''Noctua'' Linnaeus, 1758 –

*''Pyralis'' Linnaeus, 1758 – Pyralidae *''Tinea'' Linnaeus, 1758 – Tineidae *''Tortrix'' Linnaeus, 1758 – Tortricidae

References

Obsolete arthropod taxa Moth genera {{moth-stub