Sematuridae is a

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 ...

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

s in the

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 organ ...

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

that contains two

subfamilies In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zool ...

(

Minet Minet may refer to: People *Bernard Minet, French singer and actor * Elissa Minet Fuchs (1919–2023), American ballerina * Pierre Minet, French poet * William Minet (1851-1933), British landowner and philanthropist Places * Minet Country Park, L ...

and Scoble, 1999).

Taxonomy, systematics, and identification

These are large day- or night-flying moths, usually tailed and similar to

Uraniidae The Uraniidae are a family (biology), family of moths containing four subfamily (biology), subfamilies, 90 genera, and roughly 700 species. The family is distributed throughout the tropics of the Americas, Africa and Indo-Australia.Carter, David ...

in general appearanc

(except for the

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

''Apoprogones'', ''Anuropteryx'' and ''Lonchotura''). The position of this family is not certain amongst the

Macrolepidoptera Macrolepidoptera is a group within the insect Order (biology), order Lepidoptera. Traditionally used for the larger butterflies and moths as opposed to the "microlepidoptera", this group is artificial. However, it seems that by moving some taxa ...

but it is usually considered to belong to the

superfamily SUPERFAMILY is a database and search platform of structural and functional annotation for all proteins and genomes. It classifies amino acid sequences into known structural domains, especially into SCOP superfamilies. Domains are functional, str ...

Geometroidea The Geometroidea are the superfamily of geometrid moths in the order Lepidoptera. It includes the families Geometridae, Uraniidae, Epicopeiidae, Sematuridae Sematuridae is a Family (biology), family of moths in the lepidopteran Order (bio ...

, whilst the identity of its closest

extant Extant or Least-concern species, least concern is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to: * Extant hereditary titles * Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English * Exta ...

relative is under investigation using DNA sequencing

Until recently very little has been known of sematurid biology (but see

Sematurinae Sematurinae is a subfamily of moths in the Family (biology), family Sematuridae represented by at least 29 species in the Neotropics. Taxonomy, classification and identification Sematurinae has three principal genus, genera, and possibly another ...

). The "chaetosemata" of Sematuridae have long

setae In biology, setae (; seta ; ) are any of a number of different bristle- or hair-like structures on living organisms. Animal setae Protostomes Depending partly on their form and function, protostome setae may be called macrotrichia, chaetae ...

overhanging the

compound eyes A compound eye is a visual organ found in arthropods such as insects and crustaceans. It may consist of thousands of ommatidia, which are tiny independent photoreception units that consist of a cornea, lens, and photoreceptor cells which distin ...

, the antennae are thickened towards the often rather

clubbed ''Clubbed'' is a 2008 British drama film about a 1980s factory worker who takes up a job as a club doorman, written by Geoff Thompson and directed by Neil Thompson. Plot In 1984, Danny - a lonely factory worker intimidated by life - is battere ...

or hooked tip whilst a

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

for hearing is always absent and there are other diagnostic characters in the

abdomen The abdomen (colloquially called the gut, belly, tummy, midriff, tucky, or stomach) is the front part of the torso between the thorax (chest) and pelvis in humans and in other vertebrates. The area occupied by the abdomen is called the abdominal ...

(Minet and Scoble, 1999: 305-307; Holloway et al., 2001).

Distribution

Apoprogoninae Apoprogoninae is a monotypic subfamily of the moth family Sematuridae. Its single genus, ''Apoprogones'', containing a single species, ''Apoprogones hesperistis'', were both described by George Hampson in 1903. It is known from Eswatini and Sout ...

is represented by a single species in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

whilst

is represented by about 29 (41 including the genera ''Anurapteryx'' and ''Lonchotura'') species in the

Neotropics The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In biogeog ...

. Such an apparently relictual distribution might relate to the geological split of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

, but there is as yet no evidence for the age of

evolutionary Evolution is the change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, resulting in certa ...

divergence of

Neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In biogeogra ...

and

Afrotropical The Afrotropical realm is one of the Earth's eight biogeographic realms. It includes Sub-Saharan Africa, the southern Arabian Peninsula, the island of Madagascar, and the islands of the western Indian Ocean. It was formerly known as the Ethiopi ...

representatives; moreover, new genetic material would be needed for the

taxon In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

as well as the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

genera ''Anurapteryx'' and ''Lonchotura'' for a modern molecular approach to this problem to succee

References

*Holloway, J.D., Kibby, G and Peggie, D. (1997). ''The families of Malesian moths and butterflies''. Fauna Malesia Handbooks. 455 pp. Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden. *Minet, J. and Scoble, M. J. (1999)

998 Year 998 ( CMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Spring – Otto III retakes Rome and restores power in the papal city. Crescentius II (the Younger) and his followers ...

The Drepanoid/Geometroid Assemblage. Pp. 301–320 in Kristensen, N.P. (Ed.), ''Lepidoptera, Moths and Butterflies. Volume 1, Evolution, Systematics, and Biogeography''. Handbook of Zoology, vol. IV, Arthropoda: Insecta, Part 35: 491 pp. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin and New York. {{Taxonbar, from=Q1935965 Moth families