Macropiratidae

Macropiratidae
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Macropiratidae
Meyrick, 1932
Genus: Agdistopis
Hampson, 1917
Synonyms
  • Macropiratis Meyrick, 1932

Macropiratidae is a family of moths which has sometimes been treated as a subfamily of the Pterophoridae, owing to the resemblance between specimens of Macropiratidae and plume moths of the genus Agdistis, at least when preserved as pinned specimens. The family contains a single genus Agdistopis with three species.

Thomas Bainbrigge Fletcher described the species now known as Agdistopis sinhala from a single specimen in poor condition, collected in Sri Lanka in December 1907.[1]

In 1917, George Hampson published a description of a new genus Agdistopis and a new species, Agdistopis petrochroa.[2] His description was based on five specimens collected in Taiwan, Sri Lanka and Singapore. A. petrochroa was subsequently synonymised with A. sinhala. Hampson considered these moths to belong to the Pyralidae, but noted the remarkable superficial resemblance to Agdistis.

In 1932, Edward Meyrick described two species and assigned them both to a new genus (Macropiratis) and a new family, Macropiratidae.[3] The first of these, now known as Agdistopis halieutica was recorded from Fiji, while the second (under the name Macropiratis heteromantis) was described from Sri Lanka and is now considered to be another redescription of A. sinhala. Meyrick wrote of these species:

This singular genus presents an exceptional combination of characters which exclude it from all established families of Pyralidina, and I am therefore obliged to form a new family for it, of which the characters are at present those of the genus. The insects have the aspect of an entire-winged Pterophorid, but do not possess the cubital series of spinules on the lower surface of hindwings invariably characteristic of that family, and are otherwise anomalous; the apparent absence of maxillary palpi is however a point of resemblance, and there is probably real relationship.

Subsequently, these moths (including A. griveaudi, described in 1982 from Madagascar) have been considered closely related to the plume moths, either as a subfamily Macropiratinae, or more recently as a full family in the superfamily Pterophoroidea.[4][5][6] The posture of live moths and the appearance of caterpillars is markedly dissimilar from Agdistis or any other Pterophoridae.[7]

Based on a major molecular phylogeny of the Lepidoptera including A. sinhala published in 2013,[8] the family appears to be more closely related either to Hyblaeidae or Copromorphidae than to Pterophoridae.

Species

References

  1. ↑ Fletcher, Thomas Bainbrigge (1909). "The Plume-Moths of Ceylon. Part I - The Pterophoridae". Spolia Zeylanica. 6: 8.
  2. ↑ Hampson, George (1917). "A classification of the Pyralidae, subfamily Gallerianae". Novitates Zoologicae. 24: 43–44. doi:10.5962/bhl.part.23146 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
  3. ↑ Meyrick, Edward (1932). Exotic Microlepidoptera 4. pp. 248–249.
  4. ↑ Gielis, Cees (2003). Pterophoroidea & Alucitoidea (Lepidoptera) – In: World Catalogue of Insects 4. Stenstrup, Denmark: Apollo Books. pp. 198 pp. ISBN 87-88757-68-4.
  5. ↑ "Family MACROPIRATIDAE". Australian Biological Resources Study - Australian Faunal Directory. Retrieved 2017-12-05.
  6. ↑ "Agdistopis sinhala (Fletcher, 1909) 東方單羽蛾". Taiwan Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 2017-12-05.
  7. ↑ "Taiwan Moth Information Centre".
  8. ↑ Regier, JC; Mitter, C; Zwick, A; Bazinet, AL; Cummings, MP et al. (2013-03-12). "A Large-Scale, Higher-Level, Molecular Phylogenetic Study of the Insect Order Lepidoptera (Moths and Butterflies)". PLOS One. 8 (3): e58568. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0058568. PMC 3595289. PMID 23554903.
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