Homaledra is a small genus of at least four species small moth of the family Pterolonchidae native to North and South America.
Homaledra | |
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Homaledra heptathalama is sometimes known as the "exclamation moth" - see the wing pattern | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Lepidoptera |
Family: | Pterolonchidae |
Genus: | Homaledra Busck, 1900[1] |
It was included in the family Coleophoridae by Ron Hodges in 1983. Hodges then moved it to the subfamily Batrachedrinae of the Batrachedridae in 1999.[1][2][3] In 2014, a cladistic analysis performed by Heikkilä et al., made them deem it necessary to reclassify the genus in the family Pterolonchidae.[4]
In 1997 Hodges moved the two South American species Pammeces citraula and P. crocoxysta to Homaledra.[5]
The following species are known:[1]
Homaledra heptathalama feeds in the folds on the undersides of the palm fronds, using silk bolstered with its frass to construct a small elongate chamber to which it adds, as it grows, successively larger, more or less rectangular, thick-walled, communicating rooms, usually building up to eight.[8]