Kingdom Animalia Infraorder Heteroneura Phylum Arthropoda Order Butterflies and moths | Suborder Glossata Scientific name Copromorphoidea Rank Superfamily | |
Lower classifications Copromorphidae, Carposina sasakii | ||
Copromorphoidea, the "fruitworm moths" is a superfamily of insects in the lepidopteran order. These moths are small to medium-sized (10–50 mm. in wingspan) and are broad-winged bearing some resemblance to the superfamilies Tortricoidea and Immoidea. The antennae are often "pectinate" especially in males, and many species of these well camouflaged moths bear raised tufts of scales on the wings and a specialised fringe of scales at the base of the hindwing sometimes in females only; there are a number of other structural characteristics (Common, 1990; Dugdale et al., 1999) . The position of this superfamily is not certain, but it has been placed in the natural group of "Apoditrysia"[1] "Obtectomera" (Minet, 1991), rather than with the superfamilies Alucitoidea or Epermenioidea within which it has sometimes previously been placed, on the grounds that shared larval and pupal characteristics of these groups have probably evolved independently. It has been suggested that the division into two families should be abandoned (e.g. Holloway et al., 2001).
Contents
Distribution
Copromorphoidea occur worldwide except the northwest Palaearctic region (Dugdale et al., 1999).
Behaviour
Adults are night-flying and attracted to lights. Caterpillars live between joined leaves or fruits or bore within stems. The larvae pupate with the silken gallery or descend to the ground and make a cocoon covered in detritus (Dugdale et al., 1999).
Larval hostplants
The hostplants include the gymnosperm genus Podocarpus and quite a wide range of dicotyledon families[2] [3]. As the moths can infest fruit some are considered pest species such as the "Peach Fruit Moth"[4].