Family STATHMOPODIDAE

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Family STATHMOPODIDAE

Compiler and date details

23/12/22 - Cathy Byrne, Tasmanian Museum and Art gallery

Stathmopodidae Janse, A.J.T. 1917. Checklist of the South African Lepidoptera Heterocera. Pretoria : Buckley & Van Duyn Printers pp.1-219, i-xii.
Type genus:
Stathmopoda Herrich-Schäffer, 1853.
Lamprysticinae Lvovsky, A. L. 1996. A review of the genus Lamprystica Meyrick, 1914, with the description of a new subfamily (Lepidoptera, Agonoxenidae). Atalanta 27(1/2): 427-432 [432] [Lamprysticinae was referred to the family Agonoxenidae by Lvovsky. Agonoxenidae is now treated under the Elachistidae as a subfamily.].
Type genus:
Lamprystica Meyrick, 1914.

Introduction

Australian Stathmopodidae were referred to the then composite Heliodinidae by Meyrick in 1913, which included natural heliodinids and some Cosmopterygidae. The same concept of Heliodinidae was revised by Turner in 1941. Since then Australian stathmopodids have been treated as a subfamily of the Oecophoridae as both share the apomorphic character, fusion of the gnathos with the tegumen (Common 1990, Hodges 1998). However, several recent studies have provided evidence supporting the elevation of the subfamily to family on the basis of both morphological and molecular characters (Minet 1990, Kaila et al. 2011, Heikkila et al., 2014, Sohn et al., 2016 and Wang & Li 2020).

The Australian fauna comprises just over 100 species in 15 genera and has affinities with the southeast Asian fauna. Most taxa occur in Queensland (Common 1990). The moths have a characteristic resting posture with the hind legs raised out and above the body, The hind legs are also notable for their conspicuous stiff setae (Hodges 1998). Abdominal terga have spiniform setae on the posterior margins (Heikkila et al., 2014)