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Epipaschiinae

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Epipaschiinae
Caterpillar of Pococera sp. on sweetgum
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Pyralidae
Subfamily: Epipaschiinae
Meyrick, 1884
Type species
Epipaschia superatalis
Clemens, 1860
Diversity
91 genera
Synonyms

Pococerinae Hampson, 1918

The Epipaschiinae are a subfamily of snout moths (family Pyralidae).[1] Almost 600 species are known today, which are found mainly in the tropics and subtropics. Some occur in temperate regions, but the subfamily is apparently completely absent from Europe, at least as native species. A few Epipaschiinae are crop pests that may occasionally become economically significant.

Description and ecology

Adult females are often hard to distinguish from related lineages, and even the larvae do not possess the characteristic sclerotized bristle base near the start of the abdomen, whose position is a tell-tale mark of the other subfamilies of Pyralidae.

By contrast, the adult males of Epipaschiinae are easier to recognize, and three of their traits support the assumption that Epipaschiinae are a natural, monophyletic group:

  1. an always upturned and pointed third segment of the labial palpi
  2. a ventrally curved phallobase of the male which usually extends beyond the ductus ejaculatorius
  3. the weakly sclerotized tegumen

In addition, in most cases the adult males of this subfamily have a conspicuous scaled projection from the scape of the antennae.

The caterpillar larvae are leaf rollers, leaf tiers and leaf miners. As pests, they infest such diverse plants as Persea americana (avocado), Swietenia (mahoganies), or Zea mays (corn). However, they are usually a mere nuisance and do not cause large-scale crop failure.

Systematics

Solis provided a phylogenetic analysis of 20 genera of the Pococera complex (consisting of some 300 species in the Western Hemisphere) in 1993, representing the first cladistic analysis of a pyraloid group.

References

  1. ^ "Two new snout moth genera and three new species discovered in southern China". ScienceDaily.
  • Savela, Markku (2011): Epipaschiinae Meyrick Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms. Retrieved May 12, 2017.
  • Solis, M. Alma (2007): Phylogenetic studies and modern classification of the Pyraloidea (Lepidoptera). Revista Colombiana de Entomología 33(1): 1–8 [English with Spanish abstract]. HTML fulltext