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Bombycoidea

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bombycoidea
Death's-head hawkmoth (Acherontia atropos}
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Clade: Eulepidoptera
Clade: Ditrysia
Clade: Apoditrysia
Clade: Obtectomera
Clade: Macroheterocera
Superfamily: Bombycoidea
Gravenhorst, 1843[1][2]
Families
See text
Diversity
>3,500 species
Synonyms
  • Bombyciformia Schrank, 1802[3]
  • Sphingoidea Gravenhorst, 1843[1]

Bombycoidea is a superfamily of moths, including the silk moths, giant silk moths, sphinx moths, saturniids, and relatives. The superfamily Lasiocampoidea is a close relative and was historically sometimes merged in this group. After many years of debate and shifting taxonomies, the most recent classifications treat the superfamily as containing 10 constituent families.[4]

Characteristics

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Bombycoid larvae often exhibit horns.[5] In the adult stage they are typically large, and include the largest moths in the world.

Families

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Bombycoidea includes the following families:

References

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  1. ^ a b Gravenhorst, J. L. C. (1843). Vergleichende Zoologie. Breslau: Druck und Verlag von Graß, Barth und Comp.
  2. ^ Agassiz, L. (1846). Nomenclatoris Zoologici Index Universalis, continens nomina systematica classium, ordinum, familiarum et generum animalium omnium, tam viventium quam fossilium, secundum ordinem alphabeticum unicum disposita, adjectis homonymiis plantarum, nec non variis adnotationibus et emendationibus. Soloduri: Jent et Gassmann.
  3. ^ Schrank, F. P. (1802). "Spinnerförmige Schmetterlinge. Lepidoptera bombyciformia". Fauna Boica. Zweyter Band. Zweyte Abteilung (in German). Ingolstadt: Johann Wilhelm Krüll. pp. 149–156.
  4. ^ Kitching I, Rougerie R, Zwick A, Hamilton C, St Laurent R, Naumann S, Ballesteros Mejia L, Kawahara A (2018) A global checklist of the Bombycoidea (Insecta: Lepidoptera). Biodiversity Data Journal 6: e22236. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.6.e22236
  5. ^ Firefly Encyclopedia of Insects and Spiders, edited by Christopher O'Toole, ISBN 1-55297-612-2, 2002