(Selected Families) LEPIDOPTERA
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LEPIDOPTERA - butterflies and moths Diversity and Distribution (selected families) Heteroneura - Zygaenoidea Zygaenidae - smokey moths and burnets; 1000 species • Small gray or black moths with translucent wings, often with reddish thorax and other bright markings; others are very colorful • Adults are day fliers • These moths are highly resistant to cyanide kill jars • North American larvae feed on grape or Virginia creeper; includes the grapeleaf skeletonizer, the larvae feed together in a row on the same leaf LEPIDOPTERA - butterflies and moths Diversity and Distribution (selected families) Heteroneura - Zygaenoidea Megalopygidae - flannel moths; ca. 250 species • Limited to the New World and mostly tropical • Adults have a dense covering of scales interspaced with curly hairs - wooly or flannel appearance; usually brown, yellowish, white, some brightly colored; adult head small with reduced mouthparts • Larvae with accessory prolegs (on segments 2 and 7, in addition to normal complement on 3-6); prolegs sucker-like without crochets • Larvae also hairy, with very painful stinging hairs • Larvae feed on palms, guava, cacao, and ferns; in North America the common species feeds on Rubus and apple LEPIDOPTERA - butterflies and moths Diversity and Distribution (selected families) Heteroneura - Zygaenoidea Limacodidae - slug caterpillar moths; 1000 species • Known primarily for their larvae, many of which have very painful stinging hairs or spines on the body; saddle-back caterpillar, monkey slug • The larvae move like slugs because the prolegs are short and the crochets absent and replaced by suckers; the thoracic legs are very small • Adults are robust and hairy, often with small heads; often brightly colored; distinct posture with the body supported by extended legs, and with the abdomen often pointing up • U of MN entomology graduate Dr. Mark Epstein is an expert in this and other zygaenoids Limacodidae LEPIDOPTERA - butterflies and moths Diversity and Distribution (selected families) Heteroneura - Sesioidea Sesiidae - clearwing moths; 1200 species • Active, day flying moths, with transparent wings without scales except along veins; many brightly colored and resemble wasps; males and females dimorphic • Larvae bore in stems, canes, and twigs or under bark • Many economically important species, such as the peach tree borer, squash vine borer • Female sex pheromones have been synthesized to attract and trap males LEPIDOPTERA - butterflies and moths Diversity and Distribution (selected families) Heteroneura - Sesioidea Castniidae - sun moths or butterfly moths; ca. 175 species • Broad winged, diurnal moths with clubbed antennae that look very much like butterflies • Forewings usually cryptic, hind wings brightly colored • Larvae feed internally on monocots such as bromeliads, palms, orchids, etc.; some occur in the soil where they feed in roots and other below ground parts of the plant • Found in tropical regions LEPIDOPTERA - butterflies and moths Diversity and Distribution (selected families) Heteroneura - Cossoidea Cossidae - carpenter moths and leopard moths; ca. 700 species • Small to large, robust moths • Females may lay 1000s of eggs • Larvae initially disperse on silk threads, then settle and bore in woody branches and trunks of many different hosts; may cause serious damage to trees; may take 1-4 years to mature LEPIDOPTERA - butterflies and moths Diversity and Distribution (selected families) Heteroneura - Tortricoidea Tortricidae - leaf roller moths; 7,000 species • Small to medium moths, with mottled brown, tan, gray coloration, some with metallic spots; wings broad and usually squared off at apex, held like a flattened roof giving moth an arrowhead shaped appearance • Females have large, flat oviscapts and lay flat scale-like eggs that they “fence in” with specialized scales to protect against ants • Larval feeding is diverse, usually within folded or rolled leaves, but also borers in roots, seeds, stems, flowers, under bark • Many economically important - coddling moth, a pest of apples, oriental fruit moth, a serious pest of peaches, spruce budworm, a serious outbreak species in northern forests, etc., etc. • Dr. William Miller, Professor Emeritus (deceased), U of MN Entomology was a world authority in the group Tortricidae LEPIDOPTERA - butterflies and moths Diversity and Distribution (selected families) Heteroneura - Pterophoroidea Pterophoridae - plume moths; 130 species • Common moths with the wings divided into 2-3 deep slits, but this is not the condition in all species • Have a characteristic posture - long, slender body and legs with the wings closed and held out to the side • Larvae are borers in roots, stems, etc., but also feed externally • The larvae feed on range of host plants, one species even feeds on sundew (Drosera) and a few are minor pests (artichoke, grape) LEPIDOPTERA - butterflies and moths Diversity and Distribution (selected families) Heteroneura - Alucitoidea Alucitidae - many plume moths; 130 species • This small family is noteworthy for the many deep divisions in both pairs of wings of most species; cosmopolitan, but only one Nearctic species (Alucita hexadactyla) • Larvae are borers in buds, flowers, fruits, shoots or make galls; feed on Caprifoliaceae, Bignoniaceae, and Rubiaceae (in the latter family one species is a pest of coffee in Africa) LEPIDOPTERA - butterflies and moths Diversity and Distribution (selected families) Heteroneura - Pyraloidea Pyralidae (now with Crambidae as separate family) - snout and grass moths; 16,000 species • Perhaps the most diverse family of moths, with lots of new species • Adults have a pair of tympanal organs on the venter of 1st abdominal segment; their labial palps are long and project forward; forewing triangular, hind wing broad • Incredible diversity of larval habits - detritivores on fungi, dried plants and animal remains, herbivores on angiosperms, lichens, liverworts, ferns, predators on sternorrhynchans and other caterpillars, inquilines of social insects including the wax moth and mammals such as those that live in the fur of sloths, aquatic species are numerous and live in standing water as well as fast flowing streams; many species associated with grasses where they feed from silken webs at the base • Many economically important species - the meal moth, Indian meal moth, Mediterranean flour moth in stored grain; sugarcane borer, European corn borer; melon worm; grape leaf folder; pickleworm; etc. etc. Pyralidae LEPIDOPTERA - butterflies and moths Diversity and Distribution (selected families) Macrolepidoptera - Lasiocampoidea Lasiocampidae - tent caterpillars and lappet moths; 1,500 species • Small to very large moths with broad wings and stout hairy bodies • Larvae feed on great diversity of low growing plants, shrubs,and trees • Includes the tent caterpillars in the genus Malacosoma; larvae live gregariously in conspicuous silken tents; eastern tent caterpillar, M. americana; forest tent caterpillar, M. disstria • Dr. Fred Stehr, U of MN entomology graduate, studied Malacosoma taxonomy; edited most important book on immature insects LEPIDOPTERA - butterflies and moths Diversity and Distribution (selected families) Macrolepidoptera - Bombycoidea Bombycidae - Silkworm moths; 350 species • Includes most famously the silkworm moth, Bombyx mori, a native of Asia • Domesticated for 1000s of years; no longer exists in the wild • Larvae feed on mulberry • Spin silk cocoon prior to pupation made of a single thread of silk almost 1000 m long; 3000 cocoons per 1 lb silk • Sericulture practiced in China, Japan, Europe, and Brazil LEPIDOPTERA - butterflies and moths Diversity and Distribution (selected families) Macrolepidoptera - Bombycoidea Saturniidae - giant silkworm moths and royal moths; 1,500 species • Medium sized to very large, often spectacular moths, with thick bodies; wings often with tails, lobes, eye spots, clear windows, etc. • Adult antennae very plumose in males; mouthparts reduced in both sexes and adults do not feed • Female sex pheromones can be detected by males from long distance • Included luna, promethea, polyphemus, cecropia, imperial moth, royal walnut moth, io moth, buck moth, oak moths • Caterpillars large, colorful, with tubercles and spines; hickory horned devil of the royal moth; pupate in silken and leaf cocoons attached to branches or in ground without cocoon • Some also used to produce silk LEPIDOPTERA - butterflies and moths Diversity and Distribution (selected families) Macrolepidoptera - Bombycoidea Sphingidae - sphinx moths or hawk moths; 1,200 species • Medium sized to very large moths with long proboscises, sometimes longer than the length of the body • Forewings large and narrow, hind wings much smaller; very fast, strong, rapid wing beat fliers, often migratory • Attracted to large, very fragrant, white flowers that open at night; others are diurnal and may mimic bees and wasps; hover in front of flowers like hummingbirds • Larvae large and colorful with a spine-like projection (or a hard button- like structure) on the 8th abdominal segment - hence the common name “hornworms”; larvae often ectoparasitized by braconids • Pupate in the ground usually without a cocoon; the developing proboscis forms a pitcher-like handle off the body • Some economically important species such as the tomato hornworm, Manduca quinquemaculata, on tomato, tobacco, potato, and M. sexta on tobacco Superfamily Noctuoidea (6 families) Family Oenosandridae (4 genera, 8 species) Family Notodontidae (704 genera, 3,800 species) Family