Acanthopteroctetidae is a small

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 ...

of primitive

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 with two described

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 ...

, ''Acanthopteroctetes'' and '' Catapterix'', and a total of seven described

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriat ...

. They are known as the archaic sun moths. As of 2002, the Acanthopteroctetidae were classified as sole family in

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 ...

Acanthopteroctetoidea and

infraorder Order ( la, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and ...

Acanthoctesia. Based on more recent research, they may instead be included (alongside the Neopseustidae and the Aenigmatineidae) in superfamily Neopseustoidea.

Morphology

Moths in this superfamily are usually small (but one is 15 mm. in wingspan) and iridescent. Like other "homoneurous" Coelolepida and non-

ditrysia The Ditrysia are a natural group or clade of insects in the lepidopteran order containing both butterflies and moths. They are so named because the female has two distinct sexual openings: one for mating, and the other for laying eggs (in contr ...

Heteroneura Heteroneura is a natural group (or clade) in the insect order Lepidoptera that comprises over 99% of all butterflies and moths. This is the sister group of the infraorder Order ( la, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ran ...

, the

ocelli A simple eye (sometimes called a pigment pit) refers to a form of eye or an optical arrangement composed of a single lens and without an elaborate retina such as occurs in most vertebrates. In this sense "simple eye" is distinct from a multi-l ...

are lost. There are a variety of unique structural characteristics, and are evolutionary distinctive. The female adults of both ''Catapterix crimaea'' and ''C. tianshanica'' are unknown.

Diversity and distribution

Four of the species of type genus ''Acanthopteroctetes'' ('' A. aurulenta'', '' A. bimaculata'', '' A. tripunctata'' and '' A. unifascia'') are very localised in

Western North America Western North America is the western edge of the North American continent that borders the Pacific Ocean. It consists of Alaska at the farthest north, down through the western Canadian province of British Columbia, the western U.S. states of W ...

, while its fifth species ('' A. nepticuloides'') was described from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

. Genus '' Catapterix'' has two species, of which '' Catapterix crimaea'' has been observed in

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a p ...

and southern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, while '' Catapterix tianshanica'' is known from

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the ea ...

. In addition, two taxa are known to exist but have so far not been formally described: one from the Andes in Peru, and one from China.

Taxonomy

Around the start of the century, they were considered the fifth group up on the comb of branching events in the

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, ...

lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) is an order of insects that includes butterflies and moths (both are called lepidopterans). About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera are described, in 126 families and 46 superfamilies, 10 percent of the total described speci ...

phylogeny A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram or a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological s ...

, and also deemed to represent the most basal

lineage Lineage may refer to: Science * Lineage (anthropology), a group that can demonstrate its common descent from an apical ancestor or a direct line of descent from an ancestor * Lineage (evolution), a temporal sequence of individuals, populat ...

in the lepidopteran group Coelolepida (along with Lophocoronoidea and the massive group "Myoglossata") characterised in part by its scale morphology. Research on the

molecular phylogeny Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

of the Lepidoptera since then has indicated a close relation between the Acanthopteroctetidae, the Neopseustidae and the Aenigmatineidae, and the three may be considered part of a single superfamily Neopseustoidea rather than three separate, monobasic superfamilies. Molecular data from the same research showed weak support for the

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English ter ...

Coelolepida, and weakly contradicted the placement of Acanthopteroctetidae as most basal lineage of the Coelolepida. Genus ''Catapterix'' was originally described within its own family, Catapterigidae, which is considered a junior synonym of Acanthopteroctidae, with which it shares specialised structural features including similar wing morphology (in ''A. unifascia'').

Biology

Data on the species in Acanthopteroctetidae are scarce. Of the seven described species, only ''Acanthopteroctetes unifascia'' has a full description of the larval stage available. Other than a single record of a specimen tentatively identified as ''Acanthopteroctetes bimaculata'', the larvae of the remaining species in both genera are unknown. ''Acanthopteroctetes unifascia''

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. ...

e are

leaf-miner 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 wasps) ...

s on the shrub genus ''

Ceanothus ''Ceanothus'' is a genus of about 50–60 species of nitrogen-fixing shrubs and small trees in the buckthorn family ( Rhamnaceae). Common names for members of this genus are buckbrush, California lilac, soap bush, or just ceanothus. ''"Ceanothu ...

'' (

Rhamnaceae The Rhamnaceae are a large family of flowering plants, mostly trees, shrubs, and some vines, commonly called the buckthorn family. Rhamnaceae is included in the order Rosales. The family contains about 55 genera and 950 species. The Rhamnaceae ...

). They form blotch-shaped mines and overwinter as larva, after which feeding continues in spring. Pupation occurs in a cocoon on the ground. The adult

s emerge during spring and are diurnal. The specimen tentatively identified as '' Acanthopteroctetes bimaculata'' was recorded from a leaf mine on a ''

Ribes ''Ribes'' is a genus of about 200 known species of flowering plants, most of them native to the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The various species are known as currants or gooseberries, and some are cultivated for their edible ...

'' sp. (

Grossulariaceae ''Ribes'' is a genus of about 200 known species of flowering plants, most of them native to the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The various species are known as currants or gooseberries, and some are cultivated for their edi ...

Conservation

, none of the species in Acanthopteroctetidae have been evaluated by the IUCN.

Footnotes and references

External links

Tree of Life

Fauna Europaea

California Moth Specimens Database

Lepidoptera
Zootaxa {{Taxonbar, from=Q133135 Moth families Acanthoctesia Coelolepida