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Moths
Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (suborder Rhopalocera) and neither subordinate taxon is used in modern classifications. Moths make up the vast majority of the order. There are approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of which have yet to be described. Most species of moth are nocturnal, although there are also crepuscular and diurnal species. Differences between butterflies and moths While the butterflies form a monophyletic group, the moths, comprising the rest of the Lepidoptera, do not. Many attempts have been made to group the superfamilies of the Lepidoptera into natural groups, most of which fail because one of the two groups is not monophyletic: Microlepidoptera and Macrolepidoptera, Heterocera and Rhopalocera, Jugatae and Frenatae, Monotrysia, and Ditrysia.Scoble, MJ 1995. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heterocera
Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (suborder Rhopalocera) and neither subordinate taxon is used in modern classifications. Moths make up the vast majority of the order. There are approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of which have yet to be described. Most species of moth are nocturnal, although there are also crepuscular and diurnal species. Differences between butterflies and moths While the butterflies form a monophyletic group, the moths, comprising the rest of the Lepidoptera, do not. Many attempts have been made to group the superfamilies of the Lepidoptera into natural groups, most of which fail because one of the two groups is not monophyletic: Microlepidoptera and Macrolepidoptera, Heterocera and Rhopalocera, Jugatae and Frenatae, Monotrysia, and Ditrysia.Scoble, MJ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organisms, making it the second largest insect order (behind Coleoptera) with 126 family (biology), families and 46 Taxonomic rank, superfamilies, and one of the most widespread and widely recognizable insect orders in the world. Lepidopteran species are characterized by more than three derived features. The most apparent is the presence of scale (anatomy), scales that cover the torso, bodies, large triangular Insect wing, wings, and a proboscis for siphoning nectars. The scales are modified, flattened "hairs", and give butterflies and moths their wide variety of colors and patterns. Almost all species have some form of membranous wings, except for a few that have reduced wings or are wingless. Mating and the laying of eggs is normally performe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Attacus Atlas
''Attacus atlas'', the Atlas moth, is a large Saturniidae, saturniid moth endemic to the forests of Asia. The species was described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''. The Atlas moth is one of the largest lepidopterans, with a wingspan measuring up to and a wing surface area of about 160 cm2 (≈25 in2). It is only surpassed in wingspan by the Thysania agrippina, white witch (''Thysania agrippina'') and ''Attacus caesar'', and in wing surface area by the Coscinocera hercules, Hercules moth (''Coscinocera hercules''). As in most Bombycoidea, silk moths, females are noticeably larger and heavier than males, while males have broader antenna (biology), antennae. Description Eggs Atlas moths lay a number of spherical eggs, in diameter, on the undersides of the leaves of food plants. Larva After approximately two weeks, dusty-green caterpillars hatch and feed on their egg-shell, and then the foliage of citr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hedylidae
Hedylidae, the "American moth-butterflies", is a Family (biology), family of insects in the order Lepidoptera, formerly representing the superfamily Hedyloidea. They have traditionally been viewed as an Extant taxon, extant sister group of the butterfly superfamily Papilionoidea, but a 2014 Phylogenetics, phylogenetic analysis has suggested Hedylidae is a subgroup of Papilionoidea, and not a sister group, and are more accurately referred to as butterflies rather than moths. They are represented by a single Neotropical genus, ''Macrosoma'', with 35 currently recognized species. Taxonomy and systematics Hedylidae were previously treated as a Tribe (biology), tribe of Geometridae: Oenochrominae, the "Hedylicae". Prout considered they might even merit treatment as their own family. Scoble first considered them to be a hitherto unrecognised group of butterflies and also suggested Hedylidae might possibly constitute the sister group of the "true" butterflies (Papilionoidea), rather than ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhopalocera
Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossils have been dated to the Paleocene, about 56 million years ago, though molecular evidence suggests that they likely originated in the Cretaceous. Butterflies have a four-stage life cycle, and like other holometabolous insects they undergo complete metamorphosis. Winged adults lay eggs on the food plant on which their larvae, known as caterpillars, will feed. The caterpillars grow, sometimes very rapidly, and when fully developed, pupate in a chrysalis. When metamorphosis is complete, the pupal skin splits, the adult insect climbs out, expands its wings to dry, and flies off. Some butterflies, especially in the tropics, have several generations in a year, while others have a single generation, and a few in cold locations may take seve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zeugloptera
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 (Kristensen, 1999), and the sole superfamily in the suborder Zeugloptera. The name comes from the Greek for ''mikros'', little and ''pterux'', a wing. Unique among the Lepidoptera, these moths have chewing mouthparts rather than a proboscis, and are seen feeding, often in large aggregations, on the pollen of the flowers of many herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees. The fossil record of the group goes back to the middle-late Jurassic with the earliest known species being '' Auliepterix'' from the Karabastau Formation in Kazakhstan. Genera * '' Micropterix'' Hübner, 1825 * '' Epimartyria'' Walsingham, 1898 * '' Issikiomartyria'' Hashimoto, 2006 * '' Kurokopteryx'' Hashimoto, 2006 * '' Neomicropteryx'' Issiki, 1931 * '' Palaeomicroides'' Issiki, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Butterfly
Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossils have been dated to the Paleocene, about 56 million years ago, though molecular evidence suggests that they likely originated in the Cretaceous. Butterflies have a four-stage life cycle, and like other holometabolous insects they undergo complete metamorphosis. Winged adults lay eggs on the food plant on which their larvae, known as caterpillars, will feed. The caterpillars grow, sometimes very rapidly, and when fully developed, pupate in a chrysalis. When metamorphosis is complete, the pupal skin splits, the adult insect climbs out, expands its wings to dry, and flies off. Some butterflies, especially in the tropics, have several generations in a year, while others have a single generation, and a few in cold locations may take s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heterobathmiina
''Heterobathmia'' is a genus of Lepidoptera. It is the only genus in the suborder Heterobathmiina, as well as in the superfamily Heterobathmioidea and in the family Heterobathmiidae. Primitive, day-flying, metallic moths confined to southern South America, the adults eat the pollen of ''Nothofagus'' or southern beech and the larvae mine the leaves (Kristensen, 1983, 1999). Most known species are undescribed (but see Kristensen and Nielsen, 1978, 1998). A possible fossil member of the family, '' Preheterobathmia'' is known from the mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber Burmese amber, also known as Burmite or Kachin amber, is amber from the Hukawng Valley in northern Myanmar. The amber is dated to around 100 million years ago, during the latest Albian to earliest Cenomanian ages of the mid-Cretaceous period. Th ... of Myanmar. References * * Kristensen, N.P. (1999). The non-Glossatan Moths. Ch. 4, pp. 41–49 in Kristensen, N.P. (Ed.). ''Lepidoptera, Moths and Butterflies'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aglossata
''Agathiphaga'' is a genus of moths, known as kauri moths, and is the only living genus in the family Agathiphagidae. This caddisfly-like lineage of primitive moths was first reported by Lionel Jack Dumbleton in 1952, as a new genus of Micropterigidae. The caterpillars feed only on "kauri" ('' Agathis'') and are currently considered the second most primitive living lineage of moths after Micropterigoidea. The larvae have been reported to be able to survive for 12 years in diapause, durability possibly a prerequisite to its possible dispersion around the Pacific islands in the seeds of ''Agathis''. Dumbleton described two species. '' Agathiphaga queenslandensis'' is found along the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia, and its larvae feed on '' Agathis robusta''. '' Agathiphaga vitiensis'' is found from Fiji to Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, and its larvae feed on '' Agathis vitiensis''. A fossil member of Agathiphagidae, '' Agathiphagama,'' is known from the Bu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monotrysia
The Monotrysia are a group of moths in the lepidopteran order, not currently considered to be a natural group or clade. The group is so named because the female has a single genital opening for mating and laying eggs, in contrast to the rest of the Lepidoptera (Ditrysia), which have two female reproductive openings. Later classifications used Monotrysia in a narrower sense for the nonditrysian Heteroneura, but this group was also found to be paraphyletic with respect to Ditrysia. Apart from the recently discovered family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ... Andesianidae,Davis, D. R. and Gentili, P. (2003). Andesianidae, a new family of monotrysian moths (Lepidoptera: Andesianoidea) from South America. ''Invertebrate Systematics'', 17: 15-2Abstract/ref> most of the g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ditrysia
Ditrysia is a clade of lepidopterans that contains both butterflies and a majority of moth species. They are named for the fact that the female has two distinct sexual openings: one for mating, and the other for laying eggs. About 98% of known Lepidoptera species belong to Ditrysia. As larvae, they initially feed on plants until they grow to become adults and feed on nectar. They function as herbivores, pollinators, and prey in terrestrial ecosystems, and can also be extremely damaging to crops. The Lepidoptera group can be divided into the primitive but paraphyletic "micromoths" and the derived monophyletic 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
