The Adelidae or fairy longhorn moths 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 ...

monotrysia The Monotrysia are a group of moths in the lepidopteran order, not currently considered to be a natural group or clade. The group is so named because the female has a single genital opening for mating and laying eggs, in contrast to the rest of ...

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 ...

infraorder Order () is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between Family_(biology), family and Class_(biology), class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classific ...

Heteroneura Heteroneura is a natural group (or clade) in the insect order Lepidoptera that comprises over 99% of all butterflies and moths. This is the sister group of the infraorder Exoporia The Exoporia are a group of primitive Lepidoptera comprising ...

. The family was first described by

Charles Théophile Bruand d'Uzelle Charles Théophile Bruand d'Uzelle (5 March 1808, Besançon – 3 August 1861, Besançon) was a French entomologist who specialised in microlepidoptera. He described several new species and erected the families Elachistidae, Oecophoridae and Roes ...

in 1851. Most

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

have at least partially metallic, patterned coloration and are diurnal, sometimes swarming around the tips of branches with an undulating flight. Others are

crepuscular In zoology, a crepuscular animal is one that is active primarily during the twilight period, being matutinal (active during dawn), vespertine (biology), vespertine/vespertinal (active during dusk), or both. This is distinguished from diurnalit ...

and have a drab coloration. Fairy longhorn moths have a wingspan of 4–28 millimeters, and males often have especially long antennae, 1–3 times as long as the

forewing Insect wings are adult outgrowths of the insect exoskeleton that enable insects to fly. They are found on the second and third thoracic segments (the mesothorax and metathorax), and the two pairs are often referred to as the forewings and hindwi ...

. They are widespread around the world and can be found over much of North America and Eurasia from April to June. About 50 species occur in Europe, of which most widely noted is the

green longhorn The green longhorn (''Adela reaumurella'') is a lepidopteran from the moth family Adelidae, the fairy longhorn moths. Distribution ''Adela reaumurella'' has a palearctic distribution. It occurs in southern North Europe, Western Europe through Ce ...

(''Adela reaumurella'') which can sometimes reach great abundance; due to

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

its peak flying season is shifting towards spring. In general, they are more plentiful in the Northern Hemisphere, but the family occurs 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 ...

sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

South-East Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Australian mainland, which is part of Oceania. Southeast Asia i ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

too. Adelidae appear in certain plants, in which the females insert their eggs or just lay among leaf litter, and the caterpillars make a case, completing their development on the ground. Fairy longhorn moths feed in sunshine on

nectar Nectar is a viscous, sugar-rich liquid produced by Plant, plants in glands called nectaries, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollination, pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to an ...

from the flowers of

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of ...

(woody) plants.

Systematics

Fairy longhorn moths 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 ...

Adeloidea Adeloidea is a superfamily of primitive monotrysian moths in the order Lepidoptera which consists of leafcutters, yucca moths and relatives. This superfamily is characterised by a piercing, extensible ovipositor The ovipositor is a tube-l ...

, one of the basal ("

n") branches of the advanced moth

. By

n standards, they are thus still rather primitive

micromoth Microlepidoptera (micromoths) is an artificial (i.e., unranked and not monophyletic) grouping of moth families, commonly known as the "smaller moths" ( micro, Lepidoptera). These generally have wingspans of under 20 mm, so are harder to iden ...

s. But like other Heteroneura, they already possess the

apomorph In phylogenetics, an apomorphy (or derived trait) is a novel character or character state that has evolved from its ancestral form (or plesiomorphy). A synapomorphy is an apomorphy shared by two or more taxa and is therefore hypothesized to ha ...

ic sucking

proboscis A proboscis () is an elongated appendage from the head of an animal, either a vertebrate or an invertebrate. In invertebrates, the term usually refers to tubular arthropod mouthparts, mouthparts used for feeding and sucking. In vertebrates, a pr ...

– usually considered a defining feature of Lepidoptera, but the most ancestral moths still live on solid food which they chew.Davis (1999) The Adelidae were previously placed as the subfamily Adelinae within the family Incurvariidae.

Subfamilies

The Adelidae are usually divided into 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 ...

, but most genera are of uncertain or basal relationships. Selected species are also listed: Longhornfairymoth

Subfamily Adelinae * ''

Adela Adela may refer to: People * Adela (given name), a female given name, including a list of people with the name Arts and entertainment * ''Adela'', a 1933 Romanian novel by Garabet Ibrăileanu * , a 1985 Romanian film directed by Mircea Veroiu ...

'' Latreille, 1796 ** ''

Adela croesella ''Adela croesella'' is a moth of the family Adelidae. It is found in most of Europe. The wingspan is 11–14 mm. The head is ferruginous mixed with black. The antennae in male 2.5 he length of the forewing black, the tip white; in female h ...

'' ** '' Adela reaumurella'' – green longhorn * ''

Cauchas ''Cauchas'' is a genus of the fairy longhorn moth family (biology), family (Adelidae). Among these, it belongs to subfamily Adelinae. The taxon "Cauchas" Philipp Christoph Zeller 1839 was originally created as a subgenus of the genus ''Adela (mot ...

'' Zeller, 1839 ** ''

Cauchas rufimitrella ''Cauchas rufimitrella'' is a diurnal lepidopteran from the family Adelidae, the fairy long horn moths. It is found in almost all of Europe, except Portugal, Ukraine and the southern part of the Balkan Peninsula. The wingspan of the moth ranges ...

'' * '' Nemophora'' Illiger & Hoffmannsegg, 1798 (tentatively placed here) **''

Nemophora degeerella The longhorn moth or yellow-barred long-horn (''Nemophora degeerella'') is a diurnal lepidopteran from the moths family Adelidae (fairy longhorn moths). Distribution and habitat This species is present on most of Europe, but it is fairly common ...

'' – longhorn moth ** '' Nemophora metallica'' ** '' Nemophora ochsenheimerella'' Subfamily Nematopogoninae * '' Ceromitia'' Zeller, 1852 (tentatively placed here) ** ''

Ceromitia iolampra ''Ceromitia iolampra'' is a moth of the family Adelidae. It is found in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and Victoria (Australia), Victoria. The larvae feed on the flowers of ''Acacia baileyana'' and ''Acacia genistifolia''. La ...

'' * ''

Nematopogon :"Nematopogon" ''was also junior homonym, invalidly established by Agassiz in 1847 as an unjustified :wikt:emendation, emendation for the fungus moth genus ''Nemapogon. __NOTOC__ ''Nematopogon'' is a genus of the fairy longhorn moth family (biolo ...

'' ''

Incertae sedis or is a term used for a taxonomy (biology), taxonomic group where its broader relationships are unknown or undefined. Alternatively, such groups are frequently referred to as "enigmatic taxa". In the system of open nomenclature, uncertainty ...

'' * '' Subclemensia'' * ''

Trichofrons ''Trichofrons'' is a monotypic taxon, monotypic moth genus of the family Adelidae, the fairy longhorn moths. The genus was erected by Amsel in 1937. Its sole species is ''Trichofrons pantherella'', which was first described by Achille Guenée in ...

'' The genus '' Tridentaforma'' is sometimes placed among the Adelidae ''incertae sedis'' too; others assign it to the closely related

Prodoxidae The Prodoxidae are a family of moths, generally small in size and nondescript in appearance. They include species of moderate pest status, such as the Lampronia capitella, currant shoot borer, and others of considerable ecological and evolutionar ...

Footnotes

References

* Davis, D. R. (1999): The Monotrysian Heteroneura. ''In:'' Kristensen, N. P. (ed.): ''Handbuch der Zoologie/Handbook of Zoology'' (Volume IV – Arthropoda: Insecta. Part 35: Lepidoptera, Moths and Butterflies 1): 65–90. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin & New York. * Edwards, E. D. (2007): Australian Faunal Directory �
Adelidae
Version of 28 June 2007. Retrieved 9 May 2010. *

Fauna Europaea Fauna Europaea is a database of the scientific names and distribution of all living multicellular European land and fresh-water animals. It serves as a standard taxonomic source for animal taxonomy within the Pan-European Species directories Infr ...

(FE) (2009)
Adelidae
Version 2.1, 22 December 2009. Retrieved 3 May 2010. * Kuchlein, J. H. & Ellis, W. N. (2004): Climate-induced changes in the microlepidoptera fauna of the Netherlands and the implications for nature conservation. ''Journal of Insect Conservation'' 1(2): 73–80. PDF fulltext
*

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q927746 Moth families