Acanthopteroctetidae
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Acanthopteroctetidae
Davis, 1978
Genera and species

Acanthopteroctetes Braun, 1921

Catapterix Zagulajev & Sinev, 1988

Diversity
7 described species in 2 genera + 2 undescribed species

Acanthopteroctetidae is a small family of primitive moths with two described genera, Acanthopteroctetes and Catapterix, and a total of seven described species.[a] They are known as the archaic sun moths.

As of 2002, the Acanthopteroctetidae were classified as sole family in superfamily Acanthopteroctetoidea and infraorder Acanthoctesia.[2] Based on more recent research, they may instead be included (alongside the Neopseustidae and the Aenigmatineidae) in superfamily Neopseustoidea.[1]: 675, 681 

Morphology

Moths in this superfamily are usually small (but one is 15 mm. in wingspan) and iridescent. Like other "homoneurous" Coelolepida and non-ditrysian Heteroneura, the ocelli are lost. There are a variety of unique structural characteristics,[3] and are evolutionary distinctive.[4] The female adults of both Catapterix crimaea[5] and C. tianshanica[6] are unknown.

Diversity and distribution

Four of the species of type genus Acanthopteroctetes (A. aurulenta, A. bimaculata, A. tripunctata and A. unifascia) are very localised in Western North America,[7] while its fifth species (A. nepticuloides) was described from South Africa.[8] Genus Catapterix has two species, of which Catapterix crimaea has been observed in Crimea and southern France,[5] while Catapterix tianshanica is known from Kyrgyzstan.[6]

In addition, two taxa are known to exist but have so far not been formally described: one from the Andes in Peru,[3]: 54 [1]: 691  and one from China.[1]: 691 

Taxonomy

Around the start of the century, they were considered the fifth group up on the comb of branching events in the extant lepidopteran phylogeny,[9]: 10  and also deemed to represent the most basal lineage in the lepidopteran group Coelolepida[10] (along with Lophocoronoidea and the massive group "Myoglossata") characterised in part by its scale morphology.[3]: 53–54 

Research on the molecular phylogeny of the Lepidoptera since then has indicated a close relation between the Acanthopteroctetidae, the Neopseustidae and the Aenigmatineidae,[1]: 672–681  and the three may be considered part of a single superfamily Neopseustoidea rather than three separate, monobasic superfamilies.[1]: 681  Molecular data from the same research showed weak support for the clade Coelolepida, and weakly contradicted the placement of Acanthopteroctetidae as most basal lineage of the Coelolepida.[1]: 676 

Genus Catapterix was originally described within its own family, Catapterigidae,[11][12] which is considered a junior synonym of Acanthopteroctidae,[13] with which it shares specialised structural features including similar wing morphology (in A. unifascia).[4]: 1255 

Biology

Data on the species in Acanthopteroctetidae are scarce. Of the seven described species, only Acanthopteroctetes unifascia has a full description of the larval stage available.[1]: 691 [6] Other than a single record of a specimen tentatively identified as Acanthopteroctetes bimaculata,[1]: 691  the larvae of the remaining species in both genera are unknown.

Acanthopteroctetes unifascia larvae are leaf-miners on the shrub genus Ceanothus (Rhamnaceae).[3] They form blotch-shaped mines and overwinter as larva, after which feeding continues in spring.[1] Pupation occurs in a cocoon on the ground.[3] The adult moths emerge during spring and are diurnal.

The specimen tentatively identified as Acanthopteroctetes bimaculata was recorded from a leaf mine on a Ribes sp. (Grossulariaceae).[1]: 691 

Conservation

As of September 2022, none of the species in Acanthopteroctetidae have been evaluated by the IUCN.[14]

Footnotes and references

  1. ^ Two additional species, from respectively Peru and China, are known to exist but have yet to be formally described.[1]: 691 
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Regier, Jerome C.; Mitter, Charles; Kristensen, Niels P.; Davis, Donald R.; Van Nieukerken, Erik J.; Rota, Jadranka; Simonsen, Thomas J.; Mitter, Kim T.; Kawahara, Akito Y.; Yen, Shen-Horn; Cummings, Michael P.; Zwick, Andreas (October 2015). "A molecular phylogeny for the oldest (nonditrysian) lineages of extant Lepidoptera, with implications for classification, comparative morphology and life-history evolution: Molecular phylogeny for nonditrysian Lepidoptera". Systematic Entomology. 40 (4). doi:10.1111/syen.12129. S2CID 86213804.
  2. ^ Minet, J. (2002). Proposal of an infraordinal name for the Acanthopteroctetidae (Lepidoptera). Bulletin de la Société entomologique de France, 107 (3) 222. [Infraorder Acanthoctesia].
  3. ^ a b c d e Kristensen, N.P. (1999). The homoneurous Glossata. Ch. 5, pp. 51–64 in Kristensen, N.P. (Ed.). Lepidoptera, Moths and Butterflies. Volume 1: Evolution, Systematics, and Biogeography. Handbuch der Zoologie. Eine Naturgeschichte der Stämme des Tierreiches / Handbook of Zoology. A Natural History of the phyla of the Animal Kingdom. Band / Volume IV Arthropoda: Insecta Teilband / Part 35: 491 pp. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York.
  4. ^ a b Nielsen, E. S. and Kristensen, N. P. (1996). The Australian moth family Lophocoronidae and the basal phylogeny of the Lepidoptera Glossata. Invertebrate Taxonomy, 10: 1199-1302.Abstract
  5. ^ a b Nel, J.; Varenne, T.; van Nieukerken, Erik (1 January 2016). "Découverte en France d'un lépidoptère "primitif", Catapterix crimaea Zagulajev & Sinev, 1988 (Lepidoptera, Neopseustoidea, Acanthopteroctetidae)". Revue de l'Association Roussillonnaise d'Entomologie. XXV (3): 153–156. ISSN 1288-5509. Retrieved 14 September 2022.
  6. ^ a b c Mey, Wolfram; Rutjan, Evgeniy (28 September 2016). "Catapterix tianshanica sp. n. – the second species of the genus from the Palaearctic Region (Lepidoptera, Acanthopteroctetidae)". Nota Lepidopterologica. 39 (2): 145–150. doi:10.3897/nl.39.9882. Retrieved 14 September 2022.
  7. ^ Davis, D. R. (1978). A revision of the North American moths of the superfamily Eriocranioidea with the proposal of a new family, Acanthopteroctetidae (Lepidoptera). Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, 251: 1-131.
  8. ^ Mey, Wolfram (2011). "Basic pattern of Lepidoptera diversity in southwestern Africa". Esperiana Memoir. 6: 151–152. Retrieved 14 September 2022. [linked PDF is incomplete, but gives part of the relevant text]
  9. ^ Kristensen, N. P. and Skalski, A.W. (1999). Phylogeny and paleontology. Pages 7–25 in: Lepidoptera: Moths and Butterflies. 1. Evolution, Systematics, and Biogeography. Handbook of Zoology Vol. IV, Part 35. N. P. Kristensen, ed. De Gruyter, Berlin and New York.
  10. ^ Wiegmann, B.M., Regier, J.C. and Mitter, C. (2002). Combined molecular and morphological evidence on the phylogeny of the earliest lepidopteran lineages. Zoologica Scripta, 31 (1): 67-81. doi:10.1046/j.0300-3256.2001.00091.x
  11. ^ Sinev, S.Y. (1988). Systematic position of the Catapterigidae (Lepidoptera) and the problem of the naturalness of the group Heteroneura. Entomologicheskoe Obozrenie, 67: 602-614. In Russian [see Entomological Review (1990) 69: 1-14 for a translation].
  12. ^ Zagulajev, A.K.; Sinev S.Y. (1988). Catapterigidae fam. n. - a new family of lower Lepidoptera (Lepidoptera, Dacnonypha). Entomologicheskoe Obozrenie, 68: 35-43. In Russian [see Entomological Review (1989) 68: 35-43 for a translation].
  13. ^ De Prins, J.; De Prins, W. (2011–2021). "Catapterigidae". Afromoths, online database of Afrotropical moth species (Lepidoptera). Retrieved 14 September 2022.
  14. ^ "IUCN Red List". Retrieved 17 September 2022.

Further reading

External links

Wikispecies has information related to Acanthopteroctetidae.
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