Macrolepidoptera is a group within the

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 ...

order Lepidoptera. Traditionally used for the larger

butterflies Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises t ...

and

moths Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of ...

as opposed to the "

microlepidoptera 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, and are thus harder ...

", this group is artificial. However, it seems that by moving some

taxa In biology, a taxon ( back-formation from '' taxonomy''; plural 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 n ...

about, a

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic ...

macrolepidoptera can be easily achieved. The two superfamilies Geometroidea and

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 for any Lepidopteran superfamily. Its classification has not yet reached a satisfactory or stable ...

account for roughly one-quarter of all known Lepidoptera.

Taxonomy

In the reformed macrolepidoptera, the following superfamilies are included: *

Mimallonoidea Mimallonidae Burmeister (mimallonids), sometimes known as "sack-bearer" moths for the larval case-building behavior, are a family of Lepidoptera containing over 300 named species in 43 genera. These moths are found only in the New World, with mo ...

– sack bearers *

Lasiocampoidea The Lasiocampidae are a family of moths also known as eggars, tent caterpillars, snout moths (although this also refers to the Pyralidae), or lappet moths. Over 2,000 species occur worldwide, and probably not all have been named or studied. It i ...

– lappet moths *

Bombycoidea Bombycoidea is a superfamily of moths. It contains the silk moths, emperor moths, sphinx moths The Sphingidae are a family of moths ( Lepidoptera) called sphinx moths, also colloquially known as hawk moths, with many of their caterpillars ...

– bombycoid moths *

– owlet moths *

Drepanoidea Drepanoidea is the superfamily of "hook tip moths". See Minet and Scoble (1999) for a comprehensive overview. References * Minet, J. and Scoble, M.J. (1999). The Drepanoid/Geometroid Assemblage. Ch. 17 in Kristensen, N.P. (Ed.). ''Lepidoptera, ...

– drepanids * Geometroidea – inchworms * Axioidea – European gold moths * Calliduloidea – Old World butterfly-moths *

Hedyloidea Hedylidae, the "American moth-butterflies", is a family of insects in the order Lepidoptera, representing the superfamily Hedyloidea. They have traditionally been viewed as an extant sister group of the butterfly superfamily Papilionoidea. In 198 ...

– New World butterfly-moths (or moth-butterflies) *

Papilionoidea The superfamily Papilionoidea (from the genus '' Papilio'', meaning "butterfly") contains all the butterflies except for the moth-like Hedyloidea. The members of the Papilionoidea may be distinguished by the following combination of character ...

– true butterflies The last two make up the

Rhopalocera Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises ...

, or butterflies. More recent molecular studies have failed to recover the macrolepidoptera as a monophyletic group, but have found a well supported clade of moths that excludes the butterflies and some other moth superfamilies. This macro-moth clade, named

Macroheterocera The Macroheterocera are a well supported clade of moths that are closely related to butterflies and other macro-moths. Taxonomy The Macroheterocera includes the following superfamilies: * Mimallonoidea – sack bearers (variously included in ...

, contains the following five or six superfamilies: *

– sack bearers (sometimes included in basal position) *

– drepanids *

– owlet moths * Geometroidea – inchworms *

– lappet moths *

– bombycoid moths

References

External links

* {{authority control Protostome unranked clades