Kingdom Animalia Superfamily Noctuoidea Subfamily Herminiinae Rank Genus | Class Insecta Family Erebidae Phylum Arthropoda Order Butterflies and moths | |
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Similar Butterflies and moths, Herminia, Zanclognatha tarsipennalis, Hypena, Zanclognatha lunalis | ||
Zanclognatha moth geometridae zanclognatha on leaf
Zanclognatha is a genus of litter moths of the Erebidae family.
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Taxonomy
Zanclognatha was treated as a synonym of Polypogon by Poole (1989). It was split from Polypogon in 1991 and reinstated as a valid genus in 1996. A 1998 European checklist has both Zanclognatha and Polypogon as valid genera, and Lafontaine & Troubridge (2005) recommend retaining Zanclognatha as a separate genus.
It is not clear how many valid species are part of the genus; some species are likely made up of at least two valid species-level taxa that have yet to be officially split, and there are some familiar taxa that have not yet been described to science. Adult Zanclognatha species are often difficult to tell apart; wing patterns and genital morphology, two characters often used to distinguish moth species, are not necessarily useful for classifying them. The larvae are more distinctive and may be more helpful in future studies of the genus.