Kingdom Animalia Scientific name Depressaria Higher classification Depressariinae Order Butterflies and moths | Division Ditrysia Phylum Arthropoda Rank Genus | |
 | ||
Family Oecophoridae (disputed) Subfamily Depressariinae (disputed) Lower classifications Depressaria depressana, Depressaria emeritella | ||
Depressaria moth looking for winter shelter
Depressaria is a moth genus of the superfamily Gelechioidea. It is the type genus of subfamily Depressariinae, which is often – particularly in older treatments – considered a distinct family Depressariidae or included in the Elachistidae, but actually seems to belong in the Oecophoridae.
Contents
- Depressaria moth looking for winter shelter
- Species
- Unknown and undescribed species
- Former species
- References
The genus' type species is the parsnip moth. Its scientific name has been much confused for about 200 years. A.H. Haworth, on establishing the genus Depressaria in his 1811 issues of Lepidoptera Britannica, called the eventual type species Phalaena heraclei, an unjustified emendation of P. (Tortrix) heracliana. In this he followed such entomologists of his time as A.J. Retzius, who in 1783 had believed the parsnip moth to be a species originally described by C. Linnaeus in 1758. But in fact, this was a misidentification; Linnaeus' moth was actually the one known today as Agonopterix heracliana. To make matters worse, J. Curtis popularized another incorrect spelling, D. heracleana, apparently first introduced (as Pyralis heracleana) by J.C. Fabricius in his 1775 Systema Entomologiae.
Species
New species of Depressaria continue to be discovered and described. Known species include:
Some other Oecophoridae were formerly included here, among them close relatives of the present genus (e.g. Psorosticha zizyphi and many species of Agonopterix), as well as more distantly related taxa (e.g. Ironopolia sobriella). Horridopalpus is sometimes still included in Depressaria as a subgenus (namely by sources that uprank Depressariinae to full family status), but may be a far more distant relative. The members of the proposed subgenus Hasenfussia are tentatively retained here on the other hand, but their relationship to other Depressaria requires further study.
Unknown and undescribed species
Former species
