Acanthopteroctetidae

Acanthopteroctetidae is a small family of primitive moths with two described genera, Acanthopteroctetes and Catapterix, and a total of seven described species.[lower-alpha 1] They are known as the archaic sun moths.

Acanthopteroctetidae
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Acanthopteroctetidae
Davis, 1978
Genera and species

Acanthopteroctetes Braun, 1921

Catapterix Zagulajev & Sinev, 1988

Diversity
7 described species in 2 genera + 2 undescribed species

As of 2002, the Acanthopteroctetidae were classified as sole family in superfamily Acanthopteroctetoidea and infraorder Acanthoctesia.[2] Based on more recent research, they may instead be included (alongside the Neopseustidae and the Aenigmatineidae) in superfamily Neopseustoidea.[1]: 675, 681 

Morphology

Moths in this superfamily are usually small (but one is 15 mm. in wingspan) and iridescent. Like other "homoneurous" Coelolepida and non-ditrysian Heteroneura, the ocelli are lost. There are a variety of unique structural characteristics,[3] and are evolutionary distinctive.[4] The female adults of both Catapterix crimaea[5] and C. tianshanica[6] are unknown.

Diversity and distribution

Four of the species of type genus Acanthopteroctetes (A. aurulenta, A. bimaculata, A. tripunctata and A. unifascia) are very localised in Western North America,[7] while its fifth species (A. nepticuloides) was described from South Africa.[8] Genus Catapterix has two species, of which Catapterix crimaea has been observed in Crimea and southern France,[5] while Catapterix tianshanica is known from Kyrgyzstan.[6]

In addition, two taxa are known to exist but have so far not been formally described: one from the Andes in Peru,[3]: 54 [1]: 691  and one from China.[1]: 691 

Taxonomy

Around the start of the century, they were considered the fifth group up on the comb of branching events in the extant lepidopteran phylogeny,[9]: 10  and also deemed to represent the most basal lineage in the lepidopteran group Coelolepida[10] (along with Lophocoronoidea and the massive group "Myoglossata") characterised in part by its scale morphology.[3]: 53–54 

Research on the molecular phylogeny of the Lepidoptera since then has indicated a close relation between the Acanthopteroctetidae, the Neopseustidae and the Aenigmatineidae,[1]: 672–681  and the three may be considered part of a single superfamily Neopseustoidea rather than three separate, monobasic superfamilies.[1]: 681  Molecular data from the same research showed weak support for the clade Coelolepida, and weakly contradicted the placement of Acanthopteroctetidae as most basal lineage of the Coelolepida.[1]: 676 

Genus Catapterix was originally described within its own family, Catapterigidae,[11][12] which is considered a junior synonym of Acanthopteroctidae,[13] with which it shares specialised structural features including similar wing morphology (in A. unifascia).[4]: 1255 

Biology

Data on the species in Acanthopteroctetidae are scarce. Of the seven described species, only Acanthopteroctetes unifascia has a full description of the larval stage available.[1]: 691 [6] Other than a single record of a specimen tentatively identified as Acanthopteroctetes bimaculata,[1]: 691  the larvae of the remaining species in both genera are unknown.

Acanthopteroctetes unifascia larvae are leaf-miners on the shrub genus Ceanothus (Rhamnaceae).[3] They form blotch-shaped mines and overwinter as larva, after which feeding continues in spring.[1] Pupation occurs in a cocoon on the ground.[3] The adult moths emerge during spring and are diurnal.

The specimen tentatively identified as Acanthopteroctetes bimaculata was recorded from a leaf mine on a Ribes sp. (Grossulariaceae).[1]: 691 

Conservation

As of September 2022, none of the species in Acanthopteroctetidae have been evaluated by the IUCN.[14]

Footnotes and references
  1. Two additional species, from respectively Peru and China, are known to exist but have yet to be formally described.[1]: 691 
  1. Regier, Jerome C.; Mitter, Charles; Kristensen, Niels P.; Davis, Donald R.; Van Nieukerken, Erik J.; Rota, Jadranka; Simonsen, Thomas J.; Mitter, Kim T.; Kawahara, Akito Y.; Yen, Shen-Horn; Cummings, Michael P.; Zwick, Andreas (October 2015). "A molecular phylogeny for the oldest (nonditrysian) lineages of extant Lepidoptera, with implications for classification, comparative morphology and life-history evolution: Molecular phylogeny for nonditrysian Lepidoptera". Systematic Entomology. 40 (4). doi:10.1111/syen.12129. S2CID 86213804.
  2. Minet, J. (2002). Proposal of an infraordinal name for the Acanthopteroctetidae (Lepidoptera). Bulletin de la Société entomologique de France, 107 (3) 222. [Infraorder Acanthoctesia].
  3. Kristensen, N.P. (1999). The homoneurous Glossata. Ch. 5, pp. 51–64 in Kristensen, N.P. (Ed.). Lepidoptera, Moths and Butterflies. Volume 1: Evolution, Systematics, and Biogeography. Handbuch der Zoologie. Eine Naturgeschichte der Stämme des Tierreiches / Handbook of Zoology. A Natural History of the phyla of the Animal Kingdom. Band / Volume IV Arthropoda: Insecta Teilband / Part 35: 491 pp. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York.
  4. Nielsen, E. S. and Kristensen, N. P. (1996). The Australian moth family Lophocoronidae and the basal phylogeny of the Lepidoptera Glossata. Invertebrate Taxonomy, 10: 1199-1302.Abstract
  5. Nel, J.; Varenne, T.; van Nieukerken, Erik (1 January 2016). "Découverte en France d'un lépidoptère "primitif", Catapterix crimaea Zagulajev & Sinev, 1988 (Lepidoptera, Neopseustoidea, Acanthopteroctetidae)". Revue de l'Association Roussillonnaise d'Entomologie. XXV (3): 153–156. ISSN 1288-5509. Retrieved 14 September 2022.
  6. Mey, Wolfram; Rutjan, Evgeniy (28 September 2016). "Catapterix tianshanica sp. n. – the second species of the genus from the Palaearctic Region (Lepidoptera, Acanthopteroctetidae)". Nota Lepidopterologica. 39 (2): 145–150. doi:10.3897/nl.39.9882. Retrieved 14 September 2022.
  7. Davis, D. R. (1978). A revision of the North American moths of the superfamily Eriocranioidea with the proposal of a new family, Acanthopteroctetidae (Lepidoptera). Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, 251: 1-131.
  8. Mey, Wolfram (2011). "Basic pattern of Lepidoptera diversity in southwestern Africa". Esperiana Memoir. 6: 151–152. Retrieved 14 September 2022. [linked PDF is incomplete, but gives part of the relevant text]
  9. Kristensen, N. P. and Skalski, A.W. (1999). Phylogeny and paleontology. Pages 7–25 in: Lepidoptera: Moths and Butterflies. 1. Evolution, Systematics, and Biogeography. Handbook of Zoology Vol. IV, Part 35. N. P. Kristensen, ed. De Gruyter, Berlin and New York.
  10. Wiegmann, B.M., Regier, J.C. and Mitter, C. (2002). Combined molecular and morphological evidence on the phylogeny of the earliest lepidopteran lineages. Zoologica Scripta, 31 (1): 67-81. doi:10.1046/j.0300-3256.2001.00091.x
  11. Sinev, S.Y. (1988). Systematic position of the Catapterigidae (Lepidoptera) and the problem of the naturalness of the group Heteroneura. Entomologicheskoe Obozrenie, 67: 602-614. In Russian [see Entomological Review (1990) 69: 1-14 for a translation].
  12. Zagulajev, A.K.; Sinev S.Y. (1988). Catapterigidae fam. n. - a new family of lower Lepidoptera (Lepidoptera, Dacnonypha). Entomologicheskoe Obozrenie, 68: 35-43. In Russian [see Entomological Review (1989) 68: 35-43 for a translation].
  13. De Prins, J.; De Prins, W. (2011–2021). "Catapterigidae". Afromoths, online database of Afrotropical moth species (Lepidoptera). Retrieved 14 September 2022.
  14. "IUCN Red List". Retrieved 17 September 2022.

Further reading
  • Firefly Encyclopedia of Insects and Spiders, edited by Christopher O'Toole, ISBN 1-55297-612-2, 2002
Wikispecies has information related to Acanthopteroctetidae.
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