Copromorphidae
| Copromorphidae | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Suborder: | Glossata |
| Infraorder: | Heteroneura |
| (unranked): | Ditrysia |
| Superfamily: | Copromorphoidea |
| Family: | Copromorphidae |
| Genus | |
Species - see "Provisional list of species" | |
| Diversity | |
| About 40 species | |
Copromorphidae, the "tropical fruitworm moths" is a family of insects in the lepidopteran order. These moths have broad, rounded forewings, and well-camouflaged scale patterns. Unlike Carposinidae the mouthparts include "labial palps" with the second rather than third segment the longest. The position of the enigmatic New Zealand genus Isonomeutis in this family in uncertain, as it lacks the flimsy cuticle of the pupa characteristic of other Copromorphoidea. With other unusual structural characteristics of the caterpillar and adult, it could represent the sister lineage of all other extant members of this superfamily (Dugdale et al., 1999). The genus Sisyroxena from Madagascar is also notable for its unusual venation and wing scale sockets (Dugdale et al., 1999).
Etymology
The word Copromorphidae derives from the Ancient Greek words κόπρος (copros) meaning "excrement" and μορφή (morphe) meaning "shape" or "appearance", a reference to the visual characteristics of the moths' camouflage.
Distribution
These moths are widely distributed except the Palearctic region, occurring in Madagascar, India, South East Asia, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, the Neotropics, with limited Temperate region coverage except that the genera Lotisma and Ellabella occur in North America and the latter also in China (Common, 1990). Over 20 belong to the genus Copromorpha occurring in Indo-Australia (Dugdale et al., 1999).
Behaviour
Adults are night-flying and attracted to lights. Caterpillars live between joined leaves, flowers or fruits or bore within stems, and some eat leaves. The larvae pupate with the silken gallery or descend to the ground and make a cocoon covered in detritus (Dugdale et al., 1999).
Larval hostplants
Caterpillars feed on the families Ericaceae, Moraceae (Ficus) and Berberidaceae. The anomalous genus Isonomeutis is a predator on "scale insects" (Coccoidea; Margarodidae) (Dugdale et al., 1999) on the Podocarpaceae species Dacrydium cupressinum.
Fossils
One fossil taxon is known, Copromorpha fossilis Jarzembowski, 1980 from the "Bembridge Marls" of Isle of Wight, a rock formation of Oligocene age, about 35 million years old (Jarzembowski, 1980).
References
- Common, I.F.B. (1990). Moths of Australia. Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden. 535 pages.
- Dugdale, J.S., Kristensen, N.P., Robinson, G.S. and Scoble, M.J. (1999). 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.
- Jarzembowski, E.A. (1980). Fossil, insects from the Bembridge Marls, Palaeogene of the Isle of Wight, southern England. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) (Geology), 33: 237–293.
- Nasu, Y., Saito, T, Furumi Komai, F. (2004). Discovery of the previously unrecorded family Copromorphidae Meyrick (Lepidoptera) in Japan, with description of a new species and autapomorphies for the family Entomological Science, 7 (1): 73–83. doi:10.1111/j.1479-8298.2003.00041.x
External links
Provisional list of species (based on NHM Lepindex)
- Aegidomorpha psammodina Meyrick, 1932
- Cathelotis sanidopa Meyrick, 1926
- Copromorpha aeruginea Meyrick, 1917
- Copromorpha bryanthes Meyrick, 1926
- Copromorpha cryptochlora Meyrick, 1930
- Copromorpha alixella Legrand, 1965
- Copromorpha dialithoma Diakonoff, 1967
- Copromorpha efflorescens Meyrick, 1906
- Copromorpha fossilis Jarzembowski, 1980
- Copromorpha gypsota Meyrick, 1886
- Copromorpha hyphantria Diakonoff, 1984
- Copromorpha kijimuna Nasu, Saito & Komai, 2004
- Copromorpha lichenitis Turner, 1916 (originally in Trychnostola)
- Copromorpha lignisquama Diakonoff, 1954
- Copromorpha macrolepis Diakonoff, 1959
- Copromorpha mesobactris Meyrick, 1930
- Copromorpha metallistis Meyrick, 19s06
- Copromorpha mistharnis Diakonoff, [1968]
- Copromorpha myrmecias Meyrick, 1930
- Copromorpha narcodes Meyrick, 1916
- Copromorpha nesographa Meyrick, 1926
- Copromorpha orthidias Meyrick, 1927
- Copromorpha phaeosticta Turner, 1916 (originally in Trychnostola)
- Copromorpha phytochroa Diakonoff, 1953
- Copromorpha pleurophanes Meyrick, 1905
- Copromorpha pyrrhoscia Meyrick, 1935
- Copromorpha roepkei Diakonoff, 1953
- Copromorpha smaragdarcha Diakonoff, 1967
- Copromorpha tetrarcha Meyrick, 1916
- Copromorpha thrombota Meyrick, 1916
- Dryanassa erebactis Meyrick, 1936
- Ellabella editha Busck, 1925
- Ellabella melanoclista Meyrick, 1927 (originally in Probolacma)
- Endothamna marmarocyma Meyrick, 1922 (originally in Endothamna)
- Isonomeutis restincta Meyrick, 1923
- Isonomeutis amauropa Meyrick, 1888
- Lotisma trigonana Walsingham, 1879 (originally in Sciaphila)
- Lotisma vulcanica Meyrick, 1932
- Neophylarcha helicosema Meyrick, 1926
- Ordrupia dasyleuca Meyrick, 1926
- Ordrupia fabricata Meyrick, 1915
- Ordrupia fanniella Busck, 1912
- Ordrupia friserella Busck, 1911
- Ordrupia macroctenis Meyrick, 1926
- Osidryas chersodes Turner, 1913 (originally in Heterocrita)
- Osidryas chlorotribes Meyrick, 1939
- Osidryas phyllodes Meyrick, 1916
- Phanerochersa amphignosta Meyrick, 1926
- Phaulophara belogramma Turner, 1916
- Phaulophara crossospila Turner, 1923 (originally in Ardiosteres)
- Phycomorpha bryophylla Meyrick, 1927
- Phycomorpha escharitis Meyrick, 1916
- Phycomorpha metachrysa Meyrick, 1914
- Phycomorpha phlyctaenopa Meyrick, 1926 (originally in Rhopalosetia)
- Phycomorpha prasinochroa (Meyrick, 1906) (originally in Copromorpha)
- Phycomorpha simplex Strand, 1915 (originally in Rhynchoferella)
- Phycomorpha ilyopis Meyrick, 1930 (originally in Saridacma)
- Phycomorpha syncentra Meyrick, 1916 (originally in Sisyroxena)
- Phycomorpha chalazombra Meyrick, 1938 (originally in Spilogenes)
- Phycomorpha argophthalma Meyrick, 1932 (originally in Syncamaris)
- Tanymecica xanthoplaca Turner, 1916
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