The Erebidae are 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 superfamily

Noctuoidea Noctuoidea is the superfamily of noctuid (Latin "night owl") or "owlet" moths, and has more than 70,000 described species, the largest number of any Lepidopteran superfamily. Its classification has not yet reached a satisfactory or stable stat ...

. The family is among the largest families of moths by species count and contains a wide variety of well-known macromoth groups. The family includes the underwings (''

Catocala ''Catocala'' is a generally Holarctic genus of moths in the family Erebidae. The genus was erected by Franz von Paula Schrank in 1802. The moths are commonly known as underwing moths or simply underwings. These terms are sometimes used for a fe ...

''); litter moths ( Herminiinae); tiger, lichen, footman and wasp moths (

Arctiinae The Arctiinae (formerly called the family Arctiidae) are a large and diverse subfamily of moths with around 11,000 species found all over the world, including 6,000 neotropical species.Scoble, MJ. (1995). ''The Lepidoptera: Form, Function and D ...

); tussock moths (

Lymantriinae The Lymantriinae (formerly called the Lymantriidae) are a subfamily of moths of the family Erebidae. The taxon was erected by George Hampson in 1893. Many of its component species are referred to as "tussock moths" of one sort or another. The ca ...

), including the arctic woolly bear moth ('' Gynaephora groenlandica''); fruit-piercing moths (

Calpinae The Calpinae are a subfamily of moths in the family Erebidae described by Jean Baptiste Boisduval in 1840. This subfamily includes many species of moths that have a pointed and barbed proboscis adapted to piercing the skins of fruit to feed on ju ...

and others); micronoctuoid moths (

Micronoctuini The Micronoctuini are a tribe of moths in the family Erebidae that includes about 400 described species. Typical species in the tribe have bifine hindwing venation (unlike most of the related subfamily Hypenodinae) and are smaller than those in ...

); snout moths (

Hypeninae The Hypeninae are a subfamily of moths in the family Erebidae. The taxon was first described by Gottlieb August Wilhelm Herrich-Schäffer in 1851. A notable species is '' Mecistoptera griseifusa'', Taxonomy The subfamily was previously classi ...

); and zales, though many of these common names can also refer to moths outside the Erebidae (for example, crambid snout moths). Some of the erebid moths are called owlets. The sizes of the adults range from among the largest of all moths (around wingspan in the

white witch Jadis is a fictional character and the main antagonist of '' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'' (1950) and '' The Magician's Nephew'' (1955) in C. S. Lewis's series, ''The Chronicles of Narnia''. She is commonly referred to as the White Witc ...

) to the smallest of the macromoths ( wingspan in some of the

). The coloration of the adults spans the full range of dull, drab, and camouflaged (e.g., ''

Zale lunifera ''Zale lunifera'', the bold-based zale or pine barrens zale, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Jacob Hübner in 1818. It occurs primarily east and south of the Appalachian Mountains, from southern Maine south ...

'' and litter moths) to vivid, contrasting, and colorful (e.g.,

Aganainae The Aganainae are a small subfamily of moths in the family Erebidae. The adults and caterpillars of this subfamily are typically large and brightly colored, like the related tiger moths. Many of the caterpillars feed on poisonous host plants an ...

and tiger moths). The moths are found on all continents except Antarctica.

Subfamilies

* Anobinae *

– tiger, lichen, and wasp moths *

Boletobiinae The Boletobiinae are a subfamily of moths in the family Erebidae, containing about 956 species. The taxon was described by Achille Guenée in 1858. Taxonomy Phylogenetic analysis has determined that several subfamilies of the family Erebidae tha ...

– piercing moths *

Erebinae The Erebinae are a subfamily of moths in the family Erebidae erected by William Elford Leach in 1815. Erebine moths are found on all continents except Antarctica, but reach their greatest diversity in the tropics. While the exact number of specie ...

– underwings and kin *

Eulepidotinae Eulepidotinae is a subfamily of moths in the family Erebidae. Adult males in the subfamily have midtibial tufts of hairs. Adult females have the ostial opening located between the seventh and eighth abdominal sternites instead of located anteri ...

* Herminiinae – litter moths *

– snout moths *

Hypenodinae The Hypenodinae are a subfamily of moths in the family Erebidae. Adult moths of most species of this subfamily lack small, ocellus, simple eyes near the large, compound eyes and have quadrifine (four-veined) hindwing cells. The Micronoctuini, mi ...

– includes the micronoctuoids *

Hypocalinae Hypocalinae is a subfamily of moths in the family Erebidae The Erebidae are a family (biology), family of moths in the superfamily Noctuoidea. The family is among the largest families of moths by species count and contains a wide variety of w ...

– tussock moths * Pangraptinae * Rivulinae * Scolecocampinae *

Scoliopteryginae The Scoliopteryginae are a subfamily of moths in the family Erebidae. Larvae have distinctive, extra setae on the first through seventh abdominal segments. Many adult moths in the subfamily have a proboscis adapted to pierce fruit skin, allowin ...

– piercing moths *

Tinoliinae The Tinoliinae are a subfamily of moths in the family Erebidae. Taxonomy Phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as ...

Toxocampinae The Toxocampinae are a subfamily of moths in the family Erebidae. Moths in the subfamily typically have a primitive form of genital claspers similar to those of some subfamilies of the Noctuidae. Taxonomy Morphological analysis previously classi ...

Description

Adult moths of Erebidae have quadrifid forewings and usually quadrifine hindwings, meaning that each wing includes a cubital vein that splits into four (explained further in the Classification section). The tribe Micronoctuini instead has bifine hindwings (meaning this same vein splits into two). Aside from this, adult Erebidae usually have an unscaled clypeofrons and broad forewings, and the hindwings often have patterns. Scoliopteryginae, Calpinae and some Erebinae have modified proboscises to pierce fruit skins. Lymantriinae and some

Arctiina The Arctiina are a subtribe of moths in the family Erebidae. Taxonomy The subtribe was previously treated as a higher-level taxon, the tribe Arctiini, within the lichen and tiger moth family Arctiidae. The ranks of the family and its subdivisio ...

(Arctiinae) instead have a highly reduced proboscis. The overall appearance may be colourful (e.g. Arctiinae, Aganainae) or cryptic (e.g. Herminiinae). Larvae are usually smooth in appearance, but larvae of Arctiinae (woolly bears) and Lymantriinae are hairy. Larvae of Arctiinae and Lymantriinae have fully developed prolegs, Aganainae and Herminiinae have fully developed or slightly reduced prolegs, and prolegs in some other subfamilies are reduced or absent as an adaptation to

arboreal Arboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally (scansorial), but others are exclusively arboreal. The hab ...

living (semi-loopers).

Ecology

Adults of some Erebidae pierce fruit to suck out juices (leading them to be called "fruit-piercing moths"), and those of '' Calyptra'' can also pierce mammalian skin to suck out blood (hence "vampire moths"). Larvae are mostly

herbivorous A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically evolved to feed on plants, especially upon vascular tissues such as foliage, fruits or seeds, as the main component of its diet. These more broadly also encompass animals that eat n ...

, like most lepidopteran larvae, and different taxa prefer different plants.

Lithosiini The Lithosiini are a tribe of lichen moths in the family Erebidae. The taxon was described by Gustaf Johan Billberg in 1820. Systematics The tribe was previously treated as a higher-level taxon, the subfamily Lithosiinae, within the lichen a ...

(Arctiinae) larvae are unusual in feeding on algae and lichens (hence "lichen moths"). Most Herminiinae larvae feed on dead or withered leaves (hence "litter moths"), rather than living leaves.

Classification

Among the

, the Erebidae can be broadly defined by the wing characteristics of the adults with support from phylogenetic studies. The cubital forewing vein, which runs outward from the base of a wing to the

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