Taxonomy of the Lepidoptera

The insect order Lepidoptera consists of moths (43 superfamilies), most of which are night-flying, and a derived group, mainly day-flying, called butterflies (superfamily Papilionoidea). Within Lepidoptera as a whole, the groups listed below before Glossata contain a few basal families accounting for less than 200 species; the bulk of Lepidoptera are in the Glossata. Similarly, within the Glossata, there are a few basal groups listed first, with the bulk of species in the Heteroneura. Basal groups within Heteroneura cannot be defined with as much confidence, as there are still some disputes concerning the proper relations among these groups. At the family level, however, most groups are well defined, and the families are commonly used by hobbyists and scientists alike.

Micropterix aureatella, a micropterigid moth

Unassigned fossil lepidopterans edit

Suborder Zeugloptera edit

Suborder Aglossata edit

Suborder Heterobathmiina edit

Suborder Glossata edit

Infraorder Dacnonypha edit

 
Dyseriocrania subpurpurella, an eriocranid moth

Clade Coelolepida, encompassing all remaining groups edit

Infraorder Acanthoctesia edit

Infraorder Lophocoronina edit

Clade Myoglossata, encompassing all remaining groups edit

Infraorder Neopseustina edit

Clade Neolepidoptera, encompassing all remaining groups edit

Infraorder Exoporia edit

 
Oncopera brunneata, a hepalialid moth

Infraorder Heteroneura edit

Clade Nepticulina edit

Clade Eulepidoptera, encompassing all remaining groups edit

Clade Incurvariina edit
Clade Etimonotrysia edit
Clade Ditrysia, encompassing all remaining groups edit
Clade Apoditrysia, encompassing all remaining groups edit
Clade Obtectomera, encompassing all remaining groups edit
Clade Macroheterocera (Macrolepidoptera sensu sticto), encompassing all remaining groups edit
 
Catocala nupta, red underwing, a noctuid moth
 
Drymonia ruficornis, a notodontid moth

References edit

  1. ^ Kristensen, Niels P.; Hilton, Douglas J.; Kallies, Axel; Milla, Liz; Rota, Jadranka; Wahlberg, Niklas; Wilcox, Stephen A.; Glatz, Richard v.; Young, David A.; Cocking, Glenn; Edwards, Ted; Gibbs, George W.; Halsey, Mike (2015). "A new extant family of primitive moths from Kangaroo Island, Australia, and its significance for understanding early Lepidoptera evolution". Systematic Entomology. 40 (1): 5–16. doi:10.1111/syen.12115. S2CID 82036021.
  2. ^ Kaila, Lauri; Nupponen, Kari; Gorbunov, Pavel Yu; Mutanen, Marko; Heikkilä, Maria (2020-05-22). "Ustyurtiidae, a new family of Urodoidea with description of a new genus and two species from Kazakhstan, and discussion on possible affinity of Urodoidea to Schreckensteinioidea (Lepidoptera)". Insect Systematics & Evolution. 51 (3): 444–471. doi:10.1163/1876312X-00002209. ISSN 1876-312X.
  3. ^ Rajaei, Hossein; Greve, Carola; Letsch, Harald; Stüning, Dieter; Wahlberg, Niklas; Minet, Joël; Misof, Bernhard (2015). "Advances in Geometroidea phylogeny, with characterization of a new family based on Pseudobiston pinratanai (Lepidoptera, Glossata)". Zoologica Scripta. 44 (4): 418–436. doi:10.1111/zsc.12108. S2CID 84153029.
  • Capinera, John L. (Editor). (2008). Encyclopedia of Entomology, (2nd Ed). Springer Reference. ISBN 1-4020-6242-7, ISBN 978-1-4020-6242-1. Limited preview in Google Books.
  • van Nieukerken, Erik J.; Lauri Kaila; Ian J. Kitching; Niels P. Kristensen; David C. Lees; Joël Minet; Charles Mitter; Marko Mutanen; Jerome C. Regier; Thomas J. Simonsen; Niklas Wahlberg; Shen-Horn Yen; Reza Zahiri; David Adamski; Joaquin Baixeras; Daniel Bartsch; Bengt Å. Bengtsson; John W. Brown; Sibyl Rae Bucheli; Donald R. Davis; Jurate De Prins; Willy De Prins; Marc E. Epstein; Patricia Gentili-Poole; Cees Gielis; Peter Hättenschwiler; Axel Hausmann; Jeremy D. Holloway; Axel Kallies; Ole Karsholt; Akito Y. Kawahara; Sjaak (J.C.) Koster; Mikhail V. Kozlov; J. Donald Lafontaine; Gerardo Lamas; Jean-François Landry; Sangmi Lee; Matthias Nuss; Kyu-Tek Park; Carla Penz; Jadranka Rota; Alexander Schintlmeister; B. Christian Schmidt; Jae-Cheon Sohn; M. Alma Solis; Gerhard M. Tarmann; Andrew D. Warren; Susan Weller; Roman V. Yakovlev; Vadim V. Zolotuhin; Andreas Zwick (23 December 2011). Zhang, Zhi-Qiang (ed.). "Order Lepidoptera Linnaeus, 1758" (PDF). Zootaxa. Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classification and survey of taxonomic richness. 3148: 212–221..
  • Scoble, M.J. (1995) The Lepidoptera: form, function and diversity. The Oxford University Press, Oxford UK. ISBN 0-19-854952-0. Ltd preview in Google Books.