''Micropterix'' is a

genus 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 nom ...

of small primitive metallic moths, in the

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 ...

order lepidoptera within the

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 ...

Micropterigidae Micropterigoidea is the superfamily of "mandibulate archaic moths", all placed in the single family Micropterigidae, containing currently about twenty living genera. They are considered the most primitive extant lineage of lepidoptera (Kristense ...

. The name was raised by the German entomologist, Jacob Hübner in 1825 and comes from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

for ''mikros'', little and ''pterux'', a wing. The moths are distributed across

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

, south to

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

and east as far as Japan.

Description

The moths are small, with the forewing ranging in size from 2.5 mm to 5.5 mm, and at rest they are held at a steep angle, tent-like over the body. Unique among the lepidoptera, the moths have chewing mouthparts rather than a

proboscis A proboscis () is an elongated appendage from the head of an animal, either a vertebrate or an invertebrate. In invertebrates, the term usually refers to tubular mouthparts used for feeding and sucking. In vertebrates, a proboscis is an elong ...

and are most easily seen feeding, often in large aggregations, on the pollen of the flowers of many herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees.Eggs are

translucent In the field of optics, transparency (also called pellucidity or diaphaneity) is the physical property of allowing light to pass through the material without appreciable scattering of light. On a macroscopic scale (one in which the dimensions ...

white and laid amongst vegetation on the surface of the soil.The life history of the early stages is more or less unknown but larva have been found in the young shoots of plants, or obtained by the funnel extraction of woodland turf samples, from a depth of up to 10 cm. It appears there are only three

instar An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'', "form", "likeness") is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, between each moult (''ecdysis''), until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to grow or ...

s and they probably feed on minute particles of leaf-litter or possibly fungal hyphae.For many species the pupa is unknown, but of those found it is within a tough silken cocoon.

Edward Meyrick Edward Meyrick (25 November 1854, in Ramsbury – 31 March 1938, at Thornhanger, Marlborough) was an English schoolmaster and amateur entomologist. He was an expert on microlepidoptera and some consider him one of the founders of modern m ...

describes the moth as:Meyrick, E., 1895 ''A Handbook of British Lepidoptera'' MacMillan, London pdf Keys and description

Mandibles developed. No tongue. Labial palpi obsolete. Posterior tibiae with spurs placed in groups of bristles. Forewings: vein 7 to costa, vein 11 connected by bar with vein 12, 12 giving rise to an additional vein (13) about middle. Hindwings as forewings, but vein 13 usually absent.

Species

''Micropterix'' contains the following species: *'' Micropterix abchasiae'' *'' Micropterix agenjoi'' *'' Micropterix aglaella'' *'' Micropterix algeriella'' *'' Micropterix allionella'' *'' Micropterix amasiella'' *'' Micropterix amsella'' *†'' Micropterix anglica'' *'' Micropterix aruncella'' *'' Micropterix aureatella'' *'' Micropterix aureocapilla'' *'' Micropterix aureofasciella'' *'' Micropterix aureopennella'' *''

Micropterix aureoviridella ''Micropterix aureoviridella'' is a moth of the family Micropterigidae found in Austria, Germany, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland. It was first described by Gabriel Höfner in 1898. The wingspan is about . Adults are on wing ...

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q746814 Micropterigidae Moth genera Taxa named by Jacob Hübner