| Case-bearers | |
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| Adult of an unidentified case-bearer species | |
Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Infraorder: | Heteroneura |
| Clade: | Eulepidoptera |
| Clade: | Ditrysia |
| Clade: | Apoditrysia |
| Superfamily: | Gelechioidea |
| Family: | Coleophoridae Hübner, [1825] |
| Diversity | |
| Over 1,000 species | |
TheColeophoridae are afamily of smallmoths, belonging to the hugesuperfamilyGelechioidea. Collectively known ascase-bearers,casebearing moths orcase moths, this family is represented on all continents, but the majority are found in temperate areas of theNorthern Hemisphere. They are most common in thePalearctic, and rare insub-Saharan Africa,South America, andAustralia; consequently, they probably originated (like most or all other Gelechioidea families) in northernEurasia. They are relatively common in houses, they seek out moist areas to rest and procreate.[1]
These "micromoths" are generally of slender build, and like in many of their relatives, the margins of their wings usually consist of a "fringe" of hairs. The tinycaterpillarlarvae initially feed internally on theleaves,flowers, orseeds of their host plants. When they emerge to feed externally, they usually construct a protective silken case, discarded and built anew as they grow andmolt. The common names of the Coleophoridae refer to this habit.
Thebagworm moths (Psychidae), which also belong to the primitiveDitrysia (although to superfamilyTineoidea, not Gelechioidea), build similar cases as larvae. As opposed to these, though, the case-bearer females leave their cases topupate and have normally developed wings as adults, instead of beingneotenous as female bagworms usually are.
About 95% of the over 1,000 describedspecies have been placed in the "wastebin genus"Coleophora. Many proposals have been made tosplit smaller genera fromColeophora, but few have been accepted, due to the uncertainties about which species are closest to thetype species ofColeophora –C. anatipennella – and thus would remain in the genus.[2]
Regarding the family's circumscription versus other Gelechioidea, it is by now far less disputed than usual for this superfamily. TheBlastobasidae,Momphidae (mompha moths),Pterolonchidae, andSymmocidae have formerly been included in the Coleophoridae assubfamilies, but are more often considered separate families today. With the internal relationships of Coleophoridae genera (as far as they are widely accepted) and species essentially unresolved due to the classification problems mentioned above, no subfamilies ortribes are accepted in the family for the time being.[3]
Genera of case-bearers at least provisionally accepted by recent authors include:[4]
Data related toColeophoridae at Wikispecies See alsoGelechioidea Talk page for comparison of some approaches to gelechioid systematics and taxonomy.
Authority control databases: National |
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