Family XYLORYCTIDAE

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• Cryptophasinae.

Introduction

The Xyloryctidae were first described by Edward Meyrick in 1890. Most xyloryctids are found in the Indo-Australian region. Though many genera are very small like the vast majority of gelechioids, several taxa have moths of wingspans up to over 60 mm.

Xyloryctidae has been, until recently, treated as a subfamily of the Oecophoridae. Several recent studies based on both molecular and morphological data have confirmed its status as a separate family (Heikkila et al., 2014, Sohn et al., 2016, Wang and Li, 2020).

Specimens thought to represent the genus Comocritis Meyrick, 1894 have been found in Queensland, but have not been identified to species level (Nielsen et al.,1996)

General References

Heikkilä, M., Mutanen, M., Kekkonen, M. & Kaila, L. 2014. Morphology reinforces proposed molecular phylogenetic affinities: a revised classification for Gelechioidea (Lepidoptera). Cladistics 30: 563–589

Meyrick, E. 1890. Descriptions of Australian Lepidoptera. Part I. Xyloryctidae. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 13: 23-81

Sohn, J.C., J.C. Regier, C. Mitter, D. Adamski, J.F. Landry, M. Heikkilä, K.T. Park, T. Harrison, K. Mitter, A. Zwick, A.Y. Kawahara, S. Cho, M.P. Cummings & P. Schmitz 2016. Phylogeny and feeding trait evolution of the mega-diverse Gelechioidea (Lepidoptera: Obtectomera): New insight from 19 nuclear genes. Systematic Entomology 1 41: 112-132

Wang, Q. and Li, H. 2020. Phylogeny of the superfamily Gelechioidea (Lepidoptera: Obtectomera), with an exploratory application on geometric morphometrics. Zoologica Scripta 49(10): 307-328

History of changes