Depressaria

Depressaria
Purple Carrot-seed Moth imago
(Depressaria depressana)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Division: Ditrysia
Family: Oecophoridae (disputed)
Subfamily: Depressariinae (disputed)
Genus: Depressaria
Haworth, 1811
Type species
"Phalaena heraclei"
sensu Haworth, 1811
Synonyms

Depressia (lapsus)
Hasenfussia Fetz, 1994 (but see text)
Piesta Billberg, 1820
Schistodepressaria Spuler, 1910
Siganorosis Wallengren, 1881
Volucra Latreille, 1829 (unjustified emendation)
Volucrum Berthold, 1827

Depressaria is a moth genus of the superfamily Gelechioidea. It is the type genus of subfamily Depressariinae, which is often – particularly in older treatments – considered a distinct family Depressariidae or included in the Elachistidae, but actually seems to belong in the Oecophoridae.[1]

The genus' type species is the Parsnip Moth. Its scientific name has been much confused for about 200 years. A.H. Haworth, on establishing the genus Depressaria in his 1811 issues of Lepidoptera Britannica, called the eventual type species Phalaena heraclei, an unjustified emendation of P. (Tortrix) heracliana. In this he followed such entomologists of his time as A.J. Retzius, who in 1783 had believed the Parsnip Moth to be a species originally described by C. Linnaeus in 1758. But in fact, this was a misidentification; Linnaeus' moth was actually the one known today as Agonopterix heracliana. To make matters worse, J. Curtis popularized another incorrect spelling, D. heracleana, apparently first introduced (as Pyralis heracleana) by J.C. Fabricius in his 1775 Systema Entomologiae.[2]

Species

New species of Depressaria continue to be discovered and described. Known species include:[3]

Some other Oecophoridae were formerly included here, among them close relatives of the present genus (e.g. Psorosticha zizyphi and many species of Agonopterix), as well as more distantly related taxa (e.g. Ironopolia sobriella). Horridopalpus is sometimes still included in Depressaria as a subgenus (namely by sources that uprank Depressariinae to full family status), but may be a far more distant relative. The members of the proposed subgenus Hasenfussia are tentatively retained here on the other hand, but their relationship to other Depressaria requires further study.[3]

Unknown and undescribed species

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Pitkin & Jenkins (2004), FE (2009), and see references in Savela (2003)
  2. ↑ Pitkin & Jenkins (2004)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 FE (2009), and see references in Savela (2003)
Wikispecies has information related to: Depressaria
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Depressaria.

References