Notodontidae is a family of

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 approximately 3,800 known species. The family was described by

James Francis Stephens James Francis Stephens (16 September 1792 – 22 December 1852) was an English entomologist and naturalist. He is known for his 12 volume '' Illustrations of British Entomology'' (1846) and the ''Manual of British Beetles'' (1839). Early l ...

in 1829. Moths of this family are found in all parts of the world, but they are most concentrated in

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

areas, especially in the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...

(Miller, 1992). Species of this family tend to be heavy-bodied and long-winged, the wings held folded across the back of the body at rest. They rarely display any bright colours, usually being mainly grey or brown, with the exception of the subfamily Dioptinae (Grimaldi and Engel, 2005). These features mean they rather resemble

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 ...

although the families are not closely related. The adults do not feed. Many species have a tuft of hair on the trailing edge of the forewing which protrudes upwards at rest. This gives them their scientific name "back tooth" and the common name of prominents. The common names of some other species reflect their hairiness, such as puss moth and the group commonly known as kittens (''

Furcula The (Latin for "little fork") or wishbone is a forked bone found in most birds and some species of non-avian dinosaurs, and is formed by the fusion of the two pink clavicles. In birds, its primary function is in the strengthening of the thoracic ...

'' spp.), so named as they resemble small versions of the puss moth.

Life cycle

Egg

The egg is hemispherical or almost spherical, and lacks any ribs (Scoble, 1995).

Larvae

The

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder Sy ...

s are usually hairless, but may have tubercules, spines, or humps (Scoble 1995), and often rest with both ends raised. The last set of prolegs is frequently vestigial, or may be long, with glands that can be everted. Some larvae undergo shape modification and colour changes with each instar (Weller, 1992). Notodontid larvae are notable for their often bizarre shapes, and some have chemical defences (cyanic acid, formic acid, and other ketones: Blum, 1981) not commonly found in other Lepidoptera (Weller 1992). ''Schizura unicornis'' and ''S. badia'' have a mixture of formic acid, acetic acid and other compounds which they spray accurately at their attacker (Attygalle et al., 1993). The larvae of some species are truly extraordinary: That of the puss moth has a fearsome-looking "face" and two long whip-like "tails" (actually highly modified

proleg A proleg is a small, fleshy, stub structure found on the ventral surface of the abdomen of most larval forms of insects of the order Lepidoptera, though they can also be found on other larval insects such as sawflies and a few other types of in ...

s) and it rears both ends in a threatening display when disturbed. The larva of the

lobster moth The lobster moth (''Stauropus fagi''), also known as lobster prominent, is a moth from the family Notodontidae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''. The English name refers to the crusta ...

is even more remarkable, resembling a

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapoda, decapods, ostracoda, seed shrimp, branchiopoda, branchiopods, argulidae, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopoda, isopods, barnacles, copepods, ...

. Others, such as ''Cerura vinula'' mimic the edge of a leaf that has been damaged and is turning brown (they rest and feed along the edge of the leaf). Most are solitary feeders, but some are gregarious, and this is most common in the processionary moths, Thaumetopoeinae. They feed on

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

s and

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from tree ...

s, except in the subfamily Dioptinae, which feed on herbaceous plants (Miller, 1992). The larvae typically feed on only one family of trees, but closely related species will feed on distantly related plants; for example different members of the genus ''Datana'' feed on

Juglandaceae The Juglandaceae are a plant family known as the walnut family. They are trees, or sometimes shrubs, in the order Fagales. Members of this family are native to the Americas, Eurasia, and Southeast Asia. The nine or ten genera in the family have ...

Hamamelidaceae Hamamelidaceae, commonly referred to as the witch-hazel family, is a family of flowering plants in the order Saxifragales. The clade consists of shrubs and small trees positioned within the woody clade of the core Saxifragales. An earlier sy ...

Ericaceae The Ericaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with c.4250 known species spread across 124 genera, making it th ...

and

Anacardiaceae The Anacardiaceae, commonly known as the cashew family or sumac family, are a family of flowering plants, including about 83 genera with about 860 known species. Members of the Anacardiaceae bear fruits that are drupes and in some cases produce ...

(Miller 1992).

Adults

Adults have

tympanal organ A tympanal organ (or tympanic organ) is a hearing organ in insects, consisting of a membrane ( tympanum) stretched across a frame backed by an air sac and associated sensory neurons. Sounds vibrate the membrane, and the vibrations are sensed by ...

s on the metathorax that opens towards the top, and the tibial spurs have serrated edges (Scoble, 1995). Mouthparts vary from well-developed to absent. The Dioptinae, which was formerly considered a separate family, are colourful and fly by day, while the rest of the notodontids are nocturnal. Some of these Dioptinae have non-functional tympanal hearing organs which are normally defensive against bats (Fullard et al., 1997).

Importance

Some notodontids cause noticeable defoliation of their hosts. Well-known defoliators include: the saddled prominent ('' Heterocampa guttivita''), poplar defoliator ('' Clostera cupreata''), California oakworm ('' Phryganidia californica''), the beech caterpillar, ('' Quadricalcarifera punctatella''), variable oakleaf caterpillar ('' Lochmaeus manteo''), '' Epicerura pergisea'', yellownecked caterpillars ('' Datana ministra''), and walnut caterpillar ('' Datana integerrima''), among others.

Systematics

Formerly, the genus '' Oenosandra'' was placed in this family and the subfamily

Thaumetopoeinae Thaumetopoeinae is a subfamily of moths in the family Notodontidae. This group is sometimes treated as a family Thaumetopoeidae with three subfamilies: Thaumetopoeinae, Anaphinae and Epicominae. However, it is now commonly treated at subfamily r ...

was treated at independent family rank, however they were now been reclassified. Notable species are: *

Buff-tip The buff-tip (''Phalera bucephala'') is a moth of the family Notodontidae. It is found throughout Europe and in Asia to eastern Siberia. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''. Descri ...

(''Phalera bucephala'') * Puss moth (''Cerura vinula'') *

Lobster moth The lobster moth (''Stauropus fagi''), also known as lobster prominent, is a moth from the family Notodontidae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''. The English name refers to the crusta ...

(''Stauropus fagi'') * Poplar kitten (''Furcula bifida'') *

Coxcomb prominent The coxcomb prominent (''Ptilodon capucina'') is a moth of the family Notodontidae. It is a common species throughout the Palearctic realm from Ireland to Japan. It was Species description, first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition ...

(''Ptilodon capucina'') *

Rough prominent The rough prominent (''Nadata gibbosa'') is a moth of the family Notodontidae, subfamily Phalerinae. It is also known as the white-dotted prominent and the tawny prominent. The species was first described by James Edward Smith in 1797. This c ...

(''Nadata gibbosa'') Some subfamily genera: * Dudusinae ** '' Crinodes'' ** ''

Dudusa ''Dudusa'' is a genus of moths in the family Notodontidae. It was Species description, first described by Francis Walker (entomologist), Francis Walker in 1865. Moths in genus ''Dudusa'' are large, with yellow to ochre forewings and brown hindwin ...

'' * Hemiceratinae ** '' Hemiceras'' * Dicranurinae ** '' Parasinga'' *

Heterocampinae Heterocampinae is a subfamily of prominent moths in the family Notodontidae. There are at least 60 described species of Heterocampinae in North America. Genera * '' Afilia'' Schaus, 1901 * '' Disphragis'' Hübner, 1820 * '' Euhyparpax'' Beuten ...

** '' Rifargia'' Apart from the subfamilies listed in the two places above, there are numerous notodontid

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 ...

of uncertain relationships. These are:

References

* Attygalle, AB, S. Smedley, J. Meinwald and T. Eisner. 1993. Defensive secretion of 2 notodontid caterpillars. J. Chem Ecol 19(10):2089-2104. * Blum, M.S. 1981. Chemical Defenses of Arthropods. Academic Press, New York. * Chinery, Michael. 1991. ''Collins Guide to the Insects of Britain and Western Europe'' 1986 (Reprinted 1991) * Fullard, James, Jeff W. Dawson, L. Daniel Otero, Annemarie Surlykke. 1997. Bat-deafness in day-flying moths (Lepidoptera, Notodontidae, Dioptinae). Journal of Comparative Physiology A 181(5): 477-483 * Grimaldi, D, and MS Engel, 2005. Evolution of the Insects. Cambridge University Press. * Miller, James. 1992. Host-plant association among prominent moths. BioScience 42 (1): 50-56. * Scoble, MJ. 1995. The Lepidoptera: Form, Function and Diversity. Second ed. Oxford University Press. * Skinner, Bernard. 1984. ''Colour Identification Guide to Moths of the British Isles'' * Weller, SJ. 1992. Survey of Adult Morphology in Nystaleinae and Related Neotropical Subfamilies (Noctuoidea: Notodontidae). Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera 31(3-4):233-277.

External links

"Family Notodontidae"
at Insecta.pro

on the UF / IFAS Featured Creatures Web site {{Authority control Moth families