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27 unusual facts about Lepidoptera


Alexander Julius Reichert

Alexander Julius Reichert (25 January 1859 – 1 July 1939) was a German entomologist specialising in Lepidoptera.

Anthemis

Anthemis species are used as food plants by the camelse of some Lepidoptera species including Orthonama obstipata (The Gem) and Bucculatrix anthemidella, a leaf-miner which feeds exclusively on Anthemis tinctoria.

Antonio Curò

He was a lepidopterist and published Saggio di un Catalogo dei Lepidotteri d’Italia between 1875 and 1889.

Athyrium

Athyrium species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Small Angle Shades and Sthenopis auratus.

Avena

Avena species, including cultivated oats, are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including Rustic Shoulder-knot and Setaceous Hebrew Character.

Bt brinjal

The Bt brinjal has been developed to give resistance against lepidopteron insects, in particular the Brinjal Fruit and Shoot Borer (Leucinodes orbonalis)(FSB).

Butterfly evolution

Of the 220,000 species of Lepidoptera, about 45,000 species are butterflies, which probably evolved from moths.

Cope's gray tree frog

Similar hidden bright patterns are common in various Lepidoptera, for instance moths of the genus Catocala.

Donald M. Weisman

He is known for his work on the taxonomy of immature Lepidoptera.

Echoes in a Shallow Bay

With Fraser's typically indecipherable lyrics it is difficult to be sure, but all the titles on the two EPs seem to have some link with Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths).

Foray 48B

Foray 48B in an insecticide manufactured by Valent BioSciences used in forestry to selectively kill the larval stage of insect in the order Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies).

H1 neuron

Neurons sensitive to motion during flight are not specific to flies, and have been found in numerous nondipterous insect groups including Odonata, Lepidoptera, and Hymenoptera.

Hans Ferdinand Emil Julius Stichel

Hans Ferdinand Emil Julius Stichel (16 February 1862 Wronki- 2 October 1936 Berlin) was a German entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera.

Harrison Gray Dyar, Jr.

He was awarded a Master of Arts degree in biology from Columbia University in 1894, with his thesis on the classification of Lepidoptera, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1895, with his dissertation on airborne bacteria in New York City.

Josef Aloys Frölich

He is not to be confused with Franz Anton Gottfried Frölich (1805–1878), his son, also an entomologist but specialising in Lepidoptera.

Josef Emanuel Fischer von Röslerstamm

Josef Emanuel Fischer von Röslerstamm or Josef Fischer von Röslerstamm or Josef Fischer von Rösslerstamm (19 February 1787, Rumburg – 17 March 1866, Vienna) was an Austrian entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera.

Josef Johann Mann

Josef Johann Mann (19 May 1804 – 20 March 1889), or Johann Josef Ritter von Mann, was a German Bohemian entomologist and a specialist in Lepidoptera.

Michael Denis

In addition, working with Ignaz Schiffermüller he formed an early collection of butterflies and moths, which was kept at the Hofburg Palace but lost in the revolution of 1848, and published the first catalog of the Lepidoptera found around Vienna.

Muhlenbergia rigens

The tall grass is an overwintering host for many species of Lepidoptera and ladybug, which along with deergrass seed, provides food for many different bird species.

Philogène Auguste Joseph Duponchel

The volumes were published between 1832 and 1842, and within its pages the authors describe more than four thousand species of butterflies and moths.

Plexippus paykulli

Prey species that have been recorded as being part of the diet include Diptera, Homoptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Odonata, Orthoptera and Aranea.

Polystichum

Polystichum species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Pharmacis fusconebulosa.

Rudolf van Eecke

In 1916 (Leidsch Jaarboekje 1917) he became a conservator at the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie now merged with Rijksmuseum van Geologie en Mineralogie as Naturalis, where he worked on Lepidoptera.

Sven Lampa

Sven Lampa ( 17 November 1839, Skaraborg – 2 December 1914, Lidingön) was a Swedish entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera.

Transcona Historical Museum

The Christopher Stephen Quelch Lepidoptera Collection contains over 8000 specimens of moths and butterflies from across the world with a focus on Manitoba.

Walter Karl Johann Roepke

Walter Karl Johann Roepke (1882, Hohensalza –1961, Wageningen ) was a German entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera and Coleoptera

Zdravko Lorković

Zdravko Lorković (3 January 1900, Zagreb – 11 November 1998, Zagreb) was a Croatian entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera.


Alhagi

Alhagi species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Coleophora argyrella which feeds exclusively on A. maurorum.

Amphiesmenoptera

Amphiesmenoptera is an insect superorder, established by Willi Hennig in his revision of insect taxonomy for two sister orders: Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) and Trichoptera (caddisflies).

Anacamptis pyramidalis

To ensure the fertilization, their morphology is well adapted to the proboscis of Lepidoptera, especially Euphydryas, Melanargia, Melitaea, Pieris and Zygaena species.

Anne Chamberlain

She would accompany him on his outdoor excursions (though not always the whole way, for he was a prodigious walker), and learned much from his collections and studies of Lepidoptera, plants and birds.

Aralia

Aralia species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including the Common Emerald (Hemithea aestivaria).

Bidens

Several Bidens species are used as food by the caterpillars of certain Lepidoptera, such as the noctuid moth Hypercompe hambletoni and the brush-footed butterfly Vanessa cardui, the Painted Lady.

Bridelia

Bridelia species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Endoclita malabaricus.

Chrysothamnus

Chrysothamnus species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Coleophora linosyridella, Coleophora viscidiflorella (which have both been recorded on C. viscidiflorus) and Schinia walsinghami.

Coffea

Coffee is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera (butterfly and moth) species, Dalcera abrasa, turnip moth and some members of the genus Endoclita, including E. damor and E. malabaricus.

Comptonia

Comptonia peregrina is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including Bucculatrix paroptila, Grey Pug, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Io moth, and several Coleophora case-bearers: C. comptoniella, C. peregrinaevorella (which feeds exclusively on Comptonia), C. persimplexella, C. pruniella and C. serratella.

Coreopsis

Coreopsis species are used as food plants by the caterpillars of some Lepidoptera species including Coleophora acamtopappi.

Derris

Despite its toxicity, Derris is used as a food plant by the larvae of numerous Lepidoptera species including Batrachedra amydraula.

Echium

Echium species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Coleophora onosmella and Orange Swift.

Erich Martin Hering

He was a curator in the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, where his collections of Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Diptera are conserved.His collections of Agromyzidae are shared between MfN and the Agricultural School at Portici now part of the University of Naples Federico II.

Erigeron

Erigeron species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Bucculatrix angustata, Coleophora squamosella (which feeds exclusively on E. acris), Schinia intermontana, Schinia obscurata (both of which also feed exclusively on Erigeron), Schinia sexata (which feeds exclusively on E. glabellus) and Schinia villosa.

Eriogonum parvifolium

Specifically it is a host plant to ten different Lepidoptera species, including the El Segundo blue butterfly and Smith's blue butterfly; moreover, in the case of the El Segundo blue, it is the only host plant used by that species in all of its life stages.

Exhyalanthrax

Exhyalanthrax afer has been reared from pupae of tachinid and ichneumonid parasitoids of Thaumetopoea pityocampa and from the pupae of this species and other Lepidoptera.

Glochidion

Glochidion species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Aenetus eximia and Endoclita damor.

Great Spangled Fritillary

In 1985 Scottish music band Cocteau Twins released a song called "Great Spangled Fritillary"; it was the first of four tracks (each bearing Lepidoptera-influenced names) on their EP Echoes in a Shallow Bay.

Hayk Mirzayans Insect Museum

Renowned entomologists such as Jean Barou (Lepidoptera, France), Eugenio Morales Agacino (Orthoptera, Spain), Gunther Ebert and Heinz Falkner (Lepidoptera), Arthur G. Lavallee (Diptera) and others were contracted by the department, and many others (such as H. G. Amsel, Petrovich, …) visited the collection and contributed to its improvement.

Hedysarum

Hedysarum species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera (moth and butterfly) species including Coleophora accordella.

Hornbeam

Hornbeams are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Autumnal Moth, Common Emerald, Feathered Thorn, Svensson's Copper Underwing and Winter Moth (recorded on European Hornbeam) as well as the Coleophora case-bearers C. currucipennella and C. ostryae.

Hymenaea mexicana

Several of the petals showed insect feeding damage while one of the leaves showed distinct skeletonization, a feeding method often found in Lepidopterans like the Gracillariidae family moths.

Jean-Baptiste Eugène Bellier de la Chavignerie

Jean-Baptiste Eugène Bellier de la Chavignerie (28 January, 1844, Chartres-25 September 1888, Évreux) was a French entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera.

John Hartley Durrant

John Hartley Durrant (10 January 1863 in Hitchin – 18 January 1928 in Putney) was an English entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera.

John William Weidemeyer

He made collections of lepidoptera, and discovered several important species, among which was the Limenitis weidemeyerii (Weidemeyer's Admiral) of the Adirondack mountains.

Lecithocera dondavisi

The species is named after Donald R. Davis, curator of lepidoptera at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, United States, an authority on the microlepidoptera of the world.

Livistona

Livistona species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Batrachedra arenosella (recorded on L. subglobosa) and Paysandisia archon.

Manihot

Manihot species are used as food plants by the larvae of some species of Lepidoptera including Endoclita sericeus and Hypercompe hambletoni.

Marrubium

Marrubium species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Coleophora lineolea.

Mesothorax

In some groups of insects, the mesonotum is hypertrophied, such as in Diptera, Hymenoptera, and Lepidoptera), in which the anterior portion of the mesonotum (called the mesoscutum, or simply "scutum") forms most of the dorsal surface of the thorax.

Myrica

Myrica species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Brown-tail, Emperor Moth, and Winter Moth as well as the bucculatricid leaf-miners Bucculatrix cidarella, Bucculatrix myricae (feeds exclusively on Myrica gale) and Bucculatrix paroptila and the Coleophora case-bearers C. comptoniella, C. pruniella, and C. viminetella.

Phaseolus

Phaseolus species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including Common Swift, Garden Dart, Ghost Moth Hypercompe albicornis, Hypercompe icasia, the Nutmeg and various caterpillar species.

Proleg

The prolegs of Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera evolved independently of each other.

Raphanus

Raphanus species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including cabbage moth, Endoclita excrescens, the garden carpet and the nutmeg.

Sapindus

Sapindus species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) species including Endoclita malabaricus.

Stephanomeria

Stephanomeria species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Schinia scarletina, which feeds exclusively on the genus.

Thyrocopa nihoa

Included are numerous pellets of Lepidoptera frass, several kinds of plant parts and fragments, parts of dead insects, cast larval skins of insects, the larval cases of two species of Hyposmocoma, and representatives of terrestrial Mollusca of the families Tornatellinidae and Endodontidae.

William D. Kearfott

Because Kearfott's names were published in widely distributed scientific journals and his species were adequately described and diagnosed, his names are valid, but the naming practice of Kearfott was not deemed appropriate by other entomologists, such as Edward Meyrick who even responded to Kearfott's work with a paper called "On some impossible scientific names in Micro-Lepidoptera," published in 1912.