Sematuridae is a family of moths in the

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 ...

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...

that contains two

subfamilies In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

( Minet and Scoble, 1999).

Taxonomy, systematics, and identification

These are large day- or night-flying moths, usually tailed and similar to Uraniidae in general appearanc

(except for the

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 ...

''Apoprogones'', ''Anuropteryx'' and ''Lonchotura''). The position of this family is not certain amongst the Macrolepidoptera but it is usually considered to belong to the

superfamily SUPERFAMILY is a database and search platform of structural and functional annotation for all proteins and genomes. It classifies amino acid sequences into known structural domains, especially into SCOP superfamilies. Domains are functional, str ...

Geometroidea, whilst the identity of its closest

extant Extant is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to: * Extant hereditary titles * Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English * Extant taxon, a taxon which is not extinct, ...

relative is under investigation using DNA sequencing

Until recently very little has been known of sematurid biology (but see Sematurinae). The "chaetosemata" of Sematuridae have long setae overhanging the compound eyes, the antennae are thickened towards the often rather clubbed or hooked tip whilst a tympanal organ for hearing is always absent and there are other diagnostic characters in the abdomen (Minet and Scoble, 1999: 305-307; Holloway et al., 2001).

Distribution

Apoprogoninae Apoprogoninae is a monotypic subfamily of the moth family Sematuridae. Its single genus, ''Apoprogones'', containing a single species, ''Apoprogones hesperistis'', were both described by George Hampson in 1903. It is known from Eswatini and South ...

is represented by a single species in South Africa whilst Sematurinae is represented by about 29 (41 including the genera ''Anurapteryx'' and ''Lonchotura'') species in the Neotropics. Such an apparently relictual distribution might relate to the geological split of South America and Africa, but there is as yet no evidence for the age of evolutionary divergence of Neotropical and

Afrotropical The Afrotropical realm is one of Earth's eight biogeographic realms. It includes Africa south of the Sahara Desert, the majority of the Arabian Peninsula, the island of Madagascar, southern Iran and extreme southwestern Pakistan, and the island ...

representatives; moreover, new genetic material would be needed for the South African taxon as well as the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

genera ''Anurapteryx'' and ''Lonchotura'' for a modern molecular approach to this problem to succee

References

*Holloway, J.D., Kibby, G and Peggie, D. (1997). ''The families of Malesian moths and butterflies''. Fauna Malesia Handbooks. 455 pp. Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden. *Minet, J. and Scoble, M. J. (1999) 998 The Drepanoid/Geometroid Assemblage. Pp. 301–320 in Kristensen, N.P. (Ed.), ''Lepidoptera, Moths and Butterflies. Volume 1, Evolution, Systematics, and Biogeography''. Handbook of Zoology, vol. IV, Arthropoda: Insecta, Part 35: 491 pp. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin and New York. {{Taxonbar, from=Q1935965 Moth families