Australian Biological Resources Study

Australian Faunal Directory

tineidae

tineidae

Museums

Regional Maps

Family TINEIDAE


Compiler and date details

February 2012 - Robyn Meier with advice from Ted Edwards, Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences

Names and Introduction taken from Nielsen et al. (1996)

Introduction

[Updated after Robinson & Nielsen 1996]
Clothes-moths are the best known members of the family Tineidae which contains about 3500 species in 320 genera worldwide. While the family is usually regarded as the basal-most lineage of the Tineoidea, the family lacks strong synapomorphies to support its monophyly (Robinson 1988; Robinson & Nielsen 1993).

The first Austalian tineid species to be described was Moerarchis australasiella (Donovan) which was named twice during 1805, as Tinea australasiella by Donovan and as Tinea cossuna by Lewin. Scott (1863) in a detailed early paper described Tinea vivipara Scott and documented the larviparity of this species. The first detailed account of Australia's tineids was by Meyrick (1880b) followed by a more elaborate treatment (Meyrick 1893). Subsequently a number of species were named by Meyrick, Turner and Lower. Robinson & Nielsen (1987) reported on the clothes-moths (Tinea) occurring in Australia. The entire Australian fauna of Tineidae was reviewed by Robinson & Nielsen (1993) at generic level, a work that included illustrations of species of all the genera, assignment of all genera to subfamily and a catalogue of all species included in each genus. This work also contained a detailed bibliography.

Few monographs deal with tineids on a worldwide basis. Robinson revised the case-bearing clothes-moths (1979), the cave-dwelling tineids (1980) and the fungivourous Scardiinae (Robinson 1976, 1986). A number of regional studies provide a framework or reference to the Australian fauna: Diakonoff's ([1968]) study of the Philippine fauna and the work of Zimmerman (1978) and Clarke (1971, 1986) on the Pacific island faunas.

Davis (1998) separated a group of genera into the subfamily Harmacloninae and included Australian species formerly under Harmoclona Busck in Micrerethista Meyrick and described several new Australian species. Robinson (2009) published an overview of the Tineidae of relevance to Australia.

 

General References

Clarke, J.F.G. 1971. The Lepidoptera of Rapa Island. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 56: i-iv, 1-282

Clarke, J.F.G. 1986. Pyralidae and Microlepidoptera of the Marquesas Archipelago. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 416: i-iii, 1-485

Davis, D.R. 1998. A world classification of the Harmacloninae, a new subfamily of the Tineidae (Lepidoptera: Tineoidea). Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 597: i-iii, 1-81

Meyrick, E. 1880. Descriptions of Australian Micro-lepidoptera. IV. Tineina. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 1 5(2): 204-271

Meyrick, E. 1893. Descriptions of Australian Micro-lepidoptera. XVI. Tineidae. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 2-n.s. 7(4): 477-612 [Date published 1893: dated 1892]

Robinson, G. 2009. Biology, Distribution and Diversity of Tineid Moths. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia : Natural History Museum.

Robinson, G. 2009. Biology, Distribution and Diversity of Tineid Moths. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia : Natural History Museum.

Robinson, G.S. 1976. A taxonomic revision of the Tinissinae of the World (Lepidoptera: Tineidae). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Entomology 32: 253-300

Robinson, G.S. 1979. Clothes-moths of the Tinea pellionella complex: a revision of the world's species (Lepidoptera: Tineidae). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Entomology 38: 57-128

Robinson, G.S. 1980. Cave-dwelling tineid moths: a taxonomic review of the world species (Lepidoptera: Tineidae). Transactions of the British Cave Research Association 7: 83-120

Robinson, G.S. 1986. Fungus moths: a review of the Scardiinae (Lepidoptera: Tineidae). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Entomology 52: 37-181

Robinson, G.S. 1988. A phylogeny for the Tineoidea (Lepidoptera). Entomologica Scandinavica 19: 117-129

Robinson, G.S. & Nielsen, E.S. 1987. The pest species of Tinea (Clothes Moths) occuring in Australia (Lepidoptera: Tineidae). General and Applied Entomology 19: 45-48

Robinson, G.S. & Nielsen, E.S. 1993. Tineid genera of Australia (Lepidoptera). Monographs on Australian Lepidoptera 2: i-xvi, 1-344

Robinson, G.S. & Nielsen, E.S. 1996. Tineidae. pp. 37-42 in Nielsen, E.S., Edwards, E.D. & Rangsi, T.V. (eds). Checklist of the Lepidoptera of Australia. Monographs on Australian Lepidoptera. Collingwood : CSIRO Publishing Vol. 4 xiv 529 pp. & CD-ROM.

Scott, A.W. 1863. Description of an ovo-viviparous moth, belonging to the genus Tinea. Transactions of the Entomological Society of London 1: 33-36

Zimmerman, E.C. 1978. Microlepidoptera. Insects of Hawaii 9(2 vols): i-xviii, 1-1903, pls 1-8

 

History of changes

Note that this list may be incomplete for dates prior to September 2013.
Published As part of group Action Date Action Type Compiler(s)
27-Feb-2012 27-Feb-2012 MODIFIED
12-Feb-2010 (import)