Taxonomy of the Lepidoptera

*Micropterix aureatella*, a micropterigid moth

The insect order Lepidoptera consists of moths (43 superfamilies), most of which are night-flying, and a derived group, mainly day-flying, called butterflies (superfamily Papilionoidea). Within Lepidoptera as a whole, the groups listed below before Glossata contain a few basal families accounting for less than 200 species; the bulk of Lepidoptera are in the Glossata. Similarly, within the Glossata, there are a few basal groups listed first, with the bulk of species in the Heteroneura. Basal groups within Heteroneura cannot be defined with as much confidence, as there are still some disputes concerning the proper relations among these groups. At the family level, however, most groups are well defined, and the families are commonly used by hobbyists and scientists alike.

Unassigned fossil lepidopterans

Family unassigned (12 genera, 16 species)
Family Archaeolepidae
Family Mesokristenseniidae
Family Eolepidopterigidae
Family Undopterigidae

Suborder Zeugloptera

Superfamily Micropterigoidea
- Family Micropterigidae

Suborder Aglossata

Superfamily Agathiphagoidea
- Family Agathiphagidae

Suborder Heterobathmiina

Superfamily Heterobathmioidea
- Family Heterobathmiidae

Suborder Glossata

Infraorder Dacnonypha

Superfamily Eriocranioidea
- Family Eriocraniidae

Clade Coelolepida, encompassing all remaining groups

Infraorder Acanthoctesia

Superfamily Acanthopteroctetoidea
- Family Acanthopteroctetidae

Infraorder Lophocoronina

Superfamily Lophocoronoidea
- Family Lophocoronidae

Clade Myoglossata, encompassing all remaining groups

Infraorder Neopseustina

Superfamily Neopseustoidea
- Family Neopseustidae
- Family Aenigmatineidae^[1]

Clade Neolepidoptera, encompassing all remaining groups

Infraorder Exoporia

Superfamily Mnesarchaeoidea
- Family Mnesarchaeidae
Superfamily Hepialoidea
- Family Palaeosetidae
- Family Prototheoridae
- Family Neotheoridae
- Family Anomosetidae
- Family Hepialidae

Infraorder Heteroneura

Clade Nepticulina

Superfamily Nepticuloidea
- Family Nepticulidae
- Family Opostegidae

Clade Eulepidoptera, encompassing all remaining groups

Clade Macroheterocera (Macrolepidoptera sensu sticto), encompassing all remaining groups

*Catocala nupta*, red underwing, a noctuid moth

Superfamily Drepanoidea
- Family Cimeliidae
- Family Doidae
- Family Drepanidae
Superfamily Lasiocampoidea
- Family Lasiocampidae
Superfamily Bombycoidea
- Family Apatelodidae
- Family Eupterotidae
- Family Brahmaeidae
- Family Phiditiidae
- Family Anthelidae
- Family Carthaeidae
- Family Endromidae
- Family Bombycidae
- Family Saturniidae
- Family Sphingidae
Superfamily Geometroidea
- Family Epicopeiidae
- Family Pseudobistonidae^[3]
- Family Sematuridae
- Family Uraniidae
- Family Geometridae
Superfamily Noctuoidea
- Family Oenosandridae
- Family Notodontidae
- Family Erebidae
- Family Euteliidae
- Family Nolidae
- Family Noctuidae

References

^ Kristensen, Niels P.; Hilton, Douglas J.; Kallies, Axel; Milla, Liz; Rota, Jadranka; Wahlberg, Niklas; Wilcox, Stephen A.; Glatz, Richard v.; Young, David A.; Cocking, Glenn; Edwards, Ted; Gibbs, George W.; Halsey, Mike (2015). "A new extant family of primitive moths from Kangaroo Island, Australia, and its significance for understanding early Lepidoptera evolution". Systematic Entomology. 40 (1): 5–16. Bibcode:2015SysEn..40....5K. doi:10.1111/syen.12115. S2CID 82036021.
^ Kaila, Lauri; Nupponen, Kari; Gorbunov, Pavel Yu; Mutanen, Marko; Heikkilä, Maria (2020-05-22). "Ustyurtiidae, a new family of Urodoidea with description of a new genus and two species from Kazakhstan, and discussion on possible affinity of Urodoidea to Schreckensteinioidea (Lepidoptera)". Insect Systematics & Evolution. 51 (3): 444–471. doi:10.1163/1876312X-00002209. ISSN 1876-312X.
^ Rajaei, Hossein; Greve, Carola; Letsch, Harald; Stüning, Dieter; Wahlberg, Niklas; Minet, Joël; Misof, Bernhard (2015). "Advances in Geometroidea phylogeny, with characterization of a new family based on Pseudobiston pinratanai (Lepidoptera, Glossata)". Zoologica Scripta. 44 (4): 418–436. doi:10.1111/zsc.12108. S2CID 84153029.

Capinera, John L. (Editor). (2008). Encyclopedia of Entomology, (2nd Ed). Springer Reference. ISBN 1-4020-6242-7, ISBN 978-1-4020-6242-1. Limited preview in Google Books.
van Nieukerken, Erik J.; Lauri Kaila; Ian J. Kitching; Niels P. Kristensen; David C. Lees; Joël Minet; Charles Mitter; Marko Mutanen; Jerome C. Regier; Thomas J. Simonsen; Niklas Wahlberg; Shen-Horn Yen; Reza Zahiri; David Adamski; Joaquin Baixeras; Daniel Bartsch; Bengt Å. Bengtsson; John W. Brown; Sibyl Rae Bucheli; Donald R. Davis; Jurate De Prins; Willy De Prins; Marc E. Epstein; Patricia Gentili-Poole; Cees Gielis; Peter Hättenschwiler; Axel Hausmann; Jeremy D. Holloway; Axel Kallies; Ole Karsholt; Akito Y. Kawahara; Sjaak (J.C.) Koster; Mikhail V. Kozlov; J. Donald Lafontaine; Gerardo Lamas; Jean-François Landry; Sangmi Lee; Matthias Nuss; Kyu-Tek Park; Carla Penz; Jadranka Rota; Alexander Schintlmeister; B. Christian Schmidt; Jae-Cheon Sohn; M. Alma Solis; Gerhard M. Tarmann; Andrew D. Warren; Susan Weller; Roman V. Yakovlev; Vadim V. Zolotuhin; Andreas Zwick (23 December 2011). Zhang, Zhi-Qiang (ed.). "Order Lepidoptera Linnaeus, 1758" (PDF). Zootaxa. Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classification and survey of taxonomic richness. 3148: 212–221..
Scoble, M.J. (1995) The Lepidoptera: form, function and diversity. The Oxford University Press, Oxford UK. ISBN 0-19-854952-0. Ltd preview in Google Books.

[Kristensen-2015-1] Kristensen, Niels P.; Hilton, Douglas J.; Kallies, Axel; Milla, Liz; Rota, Jadranka; Wahlberg, Niklas; Wilcox, Stephen A.; Glatz, Richard v.; Young, David A.; Cocking, Glenn; Edwards, Ted; Gibbs, George W.; Halsey, Mike (2015). "A new extant family of primitive moths from Kangaroo Island, Australia, and its significance for understanding early Lepidoptera evolution". Systematic Entomology. 40 (1): 5–16. Bibcode:2015SysEn..40....5K. doi:10.1111/syen.12115. S2CID 82036021.

[2] Kaila, Lauri; Nupponen, Kari; Gorbunov, Pavel Yu; Mutanen, Marko; Heikkilä, Maria (2020-05-22). "Ustyurtiidae, a new family of Urodoidea with description of a new genus and two species from Kazakhstan, and discussion on possible affinity of Urodoidea to Schreckensteinioidea (Lepidoptera)". Insect Systematics & Evolution. 51 (3): 444–471. doi:10.1163/1876312X-00002209. ISSN 1876-312X.

[Rajaeietal2015-3] Rajaei, Hossein; Greve, Carola; Letsch, Harald; Stüning, Dieter; Wahlberg, Niklas; Minet, Joël; Misof, Bernhard (2015). "Advances in Geometroidea phylogeny, with characterization of a new family based on Pseudobiston pinratanai (Lepidoptera, Glossata)". Zoologica Scripta. 44 (4): 418–436. doi:10.1111/zsc.12108. S2CID 84153029.

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