Fairy Moths Lat. “Adelidae“
family of order “Butterflies and Moths“
1 family, 6 species

The Adelidae or fairy longhorn moths are a family of monotrysian moths in the lepidopteran infraorder Heteroneura. Most species have at least partially metallic patterns coloration and are diurnal, sometimes swarming around the tips of branches with an undulating flight. Others are crepuscular and have a drab coloration. Fairy longhorn moths have a wingspan of 4–28 millimeters, and males often have especially long antennae, 1–3 times as long as the forewing.

Hierarchy

Systematics

Fairy longhorn moths belong to the superfamily Adeloidea, one of the basal (“monotrysian”) branches of the advanced moth infraorder Heteroneura. By lepidopteran standards, they are thus still rather primitive micromoths. But like other Heteroneura, they already possess the apomorphic sucking proboscis – usually considered a defining feature of Lepidoptera, but the most ancestral moths still live on solid food which they chew. The Adelidae were previously placed as the subfamily Adelinae within the family Incurvariidae.

References

Davis, D. R. (1999): The Monotrysian Heteroneura. In: Kristensen, N. P. (ed.): Handbuch der Zoologie/Handbook of Zoology (Volume IV – Arthropoda: Insecta. Part 35: Lepidoptera, Moths and Butterflies 1): 65–90. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin & New York. ISBN 3-11-015704-7 Edwards, E. D. (2007): Australian Faunal Directory – Adelidae. Version of 28 June 2007. Retrieved 9 May 2010. Fauna Europaea (FE) (2009): Adelidae. Version 2.1, 22 December 2009. Retrieved 3 May 2010. Kuchlein, J. H. & Ellis, W. N. (2004): Climate-induced changes in the microlepidoptera fauna of the Netherlands and the implications for nature conservation. Journal of Insect Conservation 1(2): 73–80. doi:10.1023/A:1018483026265 PDF fulltext Savela, Markku (27 December 2018). “Adelidae Bruand, 1850”. Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms. Retrieved 4 March 2020.

External links

UK Adelidae key Kimber, Ian. “Families: Adelidae”. UKMoths. Retrieved 4 March 2020. McLeod, Robin (25 September 2018). “Family Adelidae - Fairy Moths”. BugGuide. Retrieved 4 March 2020.

Ancestry Graph

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Further Information

Copyright

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Adelidae the free encyclopedia Wikipedia which is released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License). On Wikipedia a list of authors is available.

Fairy Moths Lat. “Adelidae“family of order “Butterflies and Moths“1 family, 6 species