The Ditrysia are a natural group or
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 ...
of
insect
Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pa ...
s in the
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 ...
n
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 ...
containing both
butterflies
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises ...
and
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. They are so named because the female has two distinct sexual openings: one for
mating, and the other for laying
eggs (in contrast to the
Monotrysia).
About 98% of
described species of Lepidoptera belong to Ditrysia. As larvae, they initially feed on plants until they grow to become adults and feed on nectar. Distrysian lineage by the ones that live and cater from the host plant, or even the ones that live outside the plant constructing their own shelter. They function as herbivores, pollinators, and prey in terrestrial ecosystems, while also being extremely damaging to the development of agriculture. The Lepidoptera group can be divided into the primitive but
paraphyletic
In taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In ...
"micromoths" and the derived
monophyletic
In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gr ...
Apoditrysia, which include mostly larger moths, as well as the butterflies. Those with a dorsal heart vessel belong in section
Cossina. Others, having a ventral heart vessel, belong in section Tineina. While it is difficult to pinpoint the origin of affinities between clades, Tineoidea are found to be useful in understanding the vast diversity in Ditrysia. Obstecomera and Macrolepidoptera are other examples of Ditrysia's subclades. Apoditrysia, Obtectomera, and Macrolepidoptera will be considered monophyletic if one or more organisms are either included or excluded from the clade.
See also
*
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 ...
*
Taxonomy of Lepidoptera
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
Tree of Life project page: Ditrysia*
Protostome unranked clades
{{Ditrysia-stub