Choreutidae, or metalmark moths, are a

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s in the lepidopteran

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of ...

whose relationships have been long disputed. It was placed previously in 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 ...

Yponomeutoidea Yponomeutoidea is a superfamily of ermine moths and relatives. There are about 1,800 species of Yponomeutoids worldwide, most of them known to come from temperate regions. This superfamily is one of the earliest groups to evolve external feedin ...

in family Glyphipterigidae and in superfamily

Sesioidea Sesioidea is the superfamily currently containing clearwing moths ( Sesiidae), castniid moths (Castniidae) and little bear moths (Brachodidae Brachodidae is a family of day-flying moths, commonly known as little bear moths, which contains abou ...

. It is now considered to represent its own superfamily (Minet, 1986). The relationship of the family to the other lineages in the group "Apoditrysia

need a new assessment, especially with new molecular data.

Distribution

The moths occur worldwide, with 19 genera in three

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 subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

defined by the structural characteristics of the immature stages (larvae and pupae), rather than the characters of the adults (Heppner and Duckworth, 1981; Rota, 2005).

Behaviour

These small moths often bear metallic scales

and are mostly day-flying (some also come to lights), with a jerky, pivoting behaviour, and may fluff up their wings at an extreme angle. Some tropical exemplars such as the genus ''

Saptha ''Saptha'' is a genus of moths in the family Choreutidae. Species *'' Saptha aeolodoxa'' (Meyrick, 1928) *'' Saptha angustistriata'' (Issiki, 1930) *'' Saptha beryllitis'' (Meyrick, 1910) *'' Saptha chrysoprasitis'' (Meyrick, 1936) *''Saptha cy ...

'' are quite spectacular, with bright green metallic band

The members of the genus ''

Brenthia ''Brenthia'' is a genus of moths in the family Choreutidae. Species *'' Brenthia albimaculana'' (Snellen, 1875) *'' Brenthia anisopa'' Diakonoff, 1968 *'' Brenthia ardens'' Meyrick, 1912 *'' Brenthia buthusalis'' (Walker, 1863) *'' Brenthia cael ...

'', usually placed in their own subfamily Brenthiinae, have eyespots on the wings and have been shown to

mimic MIMIC, known in capitalized form only, is a former simulation computer language developed 1964 by H. E. Petersen, F. J. Sansom and L. M. Warshawsky of Systems Engineering Group within the Air Force Materiel Command at the Wright-Patterson AFB in ...

jumping spiders (Rota and Wagner, 2006).

Larval hostplants

Most species skeletonize leaves often among silken webbin

The foodplants of many Choreutinae occurring in the

temperate region In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout t ...

and some tropical species are know

being dominated by

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae ...

Betulaceae Betulaceae, the birch family, includes six genera of deciduous nut-bearing trees and shrubs, including the birches, alders, hazels, hornbeams, hazel-hornbeam, and hop-hornbeams numbering a total of 167 species. They are mostly natives of ...

Boraginaceae Boraginaceae, the borage or forget-me-not family, includes about 2,000 species of shrubs, trees and herbs in 146, to 156 genera with a worldwide distribution. The APG IV system from 2016 classifies the Boraginaceae as single family of the orde ...

, Dipterocarpaceae, Fabaceae,

Labiatae The Lamiaceae ( ) or Labiatae are a family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint, deadnettle or sage family. Many of the plants are aromatic in all parts and include widely used culinary herbs like basil, mint, rosemary, sage, s ...

Moraceae The Moraceae — often called the mulberry family or fig family — are a family of flowering plants comprising about 38 genera and over 1100 species. Most are widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, less so in temperate climates; however ...

(mainly ''

Ficus ''Ficus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending int ...

''),

Rosaceae Rosaceae (), the rose family, is a medium-sized family of flowering plants that includes 4,828 known species in 91 genera. The name is derived from the type genus ''Rosa''. Among the most species-rich genera are '' Alchemilla'' (270), '' Sorbu ...

Sapindaceae The Sapindaceae are a family of flowering plants in the order Sapindales known as the soapberry family. It contains 138 genera and 1858 accepted species. Examples include horse chestnut, maples, ackee and lychee. The Sapindaceae occur in temp ...

and

Urticaceae The Urticaceae are a family, the nettle family, of flowering plants. The family name comes from the genus '' Urtica''. The Urticaceae include a number of well-known and useful plants, including nettles in the genus ''Urtica'', ramie (''Boehmer ...

. The European nettle-tap moth (''

Anthophila fabriciana ''Anthophila fabriciana'', also known as the common nettle-tap, is a moth of the family Choreutidae first described in 1767 by Carl Linnaeus. The moth can be found flying around stinging nettles during the day. Distribution This species can b ...

'' Linnaeus, 1767), illustrated her

is a familiar sight pirouetting around "stinging nettles" ''

Urtica ''Urtica'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Urticaceae. Many species have stinging hairs and may be called nettles or stinging nettles, although the latter name applies particularly to '' Urtica dioica''. ''Urtica'' species are food ...

'' and nearby flowers while ''

Choreutis pariana ''Choreutis pariana'', the apple-and-thorn skeletonizer or apple leaf skeletonizer, is a moth of the family Choreutidae. The moth was first described by the Swedish entomologist Carl Alexander Clerck in 1759. It is native to Eurasia and was int ...

skeletonizes apple leaves. The last genus has 85 species worldwide one of which, '' Choreutis tigroides, C. tigroides'', is a pest of "jackfruit" (''

Artocarpus ''Artocarpus'' is a genus of approximately 60 trees and shrubs of Southeast Asian and Pacific origin, belonging to the mulberry family, Moraceae. Most species of ''Artocarpus'' are restricted to Southeast Asia; a few cultivated species are more ...

'') (Dugdale et al., 1999).

References

*Dugdale, J.S., Kristensen, N.P., Robinson, G.S. and Scoble, M.J. (1999)

998 Year 998 ( CMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Spring – Otto III retakes Rome and restores power in the papal city. Crescent ...

The smaller microlepidoptera grade superfamilies, Ch.13., pp. 217–232 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. *Heppner, J. B. and W. D. Duckworth (1981). Classification of the superfamily Sesioidea (Lepidoptera: Ditrysia). ''Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology'' 314: 1–144. *Minet, J. (1986). Ébauche d'une classification moderne de l'ordre des Lépidoptères. ''Alexanor'' 14(7): 291–313. *Rota, J. (2005) Larval and Pupal Descriptions of the Neotropical Choreutid Genera ''Rhobonda'' Walker and ''Zodia'' Heppner (Lepidoptera: Choreutidae) ''Annals of the Entomological Society of America'', 98: 37–47.
Abstract
*Rota, J. and Wagner, D.L. (2006). Predator Mimicry: Metalmark Moths Mimic Their Jumping Spider Predators. ''PLOS One'', 1(1): e45. Published online 20 December 2006.
Abstract/pdf

Sources

*''Firefly Encyclopedia of Insects and Spiders'', edited by Christopher O'Toole, , 2002

External links

Tree of LifeUK Moths ChoreutidaeLepIndex list of species and genera in family ChoreutidaeUS leaf damage ''Millieria''Choreutinae resting postures
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1129651 Moth families Taxa named by Henry Tibbats Stainton