Rank Genus | Species S. schaefferella | |
Scientific name Schiffermuelleria schaefferella Similar Butterflies and moths, Borkhausenia, Borkhausenia minutella, Alabonia, Denisia similella | ||
Schiffermuelleria is a genus of gelechioid moths. It is placed in the subfamily Oecophorinae of family Oecophoridae. The genus is treated as monotypic, with the single species Schiffermuelleria schaefferella placed here. As such, its distinctness from the closely related genus Borkhausenia – where S. schaefferella was often placed in the past – is open to debate.
Earlier authors, by contrast, included many other species of Borkhausenia here, as well as some species nowadays placed in Denisia. Today, if anything Schiffermuellerina (established only in 1989) is included in Schiffermuelleria as a subgenus. But although they are certainly similar at a casual glance, the placement of Schiffermuellerina among the Oecophoridae is not yet resolved in sufficient detail, and it may well be more distinct.
The caterpillars of this moth develop in rotting wood, on which they feed.