Family Cosmopterigidae: Cosmopterigids
| Diagnosis: Proboscis scale covered at base; fw with
veins CuA1 and CuA2
arising separate from discal cell and directed from origin to
outer margin, CuP absent; hw outer margin straight to evenly rounded;
tibial epiphysis often very large, covering half of fore tibial ventral
surface; abdomen without spiniform setae.
Diversity: Worldwide three subfamilies, 106 genera, and at least 1,628 species; North America 26 genera and at least 180 species; as yet only nine species have been recorded from the Dakotas. Checklist numbers: 1466- 1645. Biology: diverse habits– bark and leaf miners, seed borers, gall makers, scavengers, one genus parasitic on armored scale insects.
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| Further reading:
Hodges, Ronald W. 1969. Nearctic Walshiidae notes and new taxa (Lepidoptera: Gelechioidea). Smithson. contrib. Zool. 18: 30 pp. __________. 1978. Fascicle 6.1 Gelechioidea Cosmopterigidae in Dominick et al. The moths of America north of Mexico. E. W. Classey Ltd. London. 166 pp. __________., Chapter 9. The Gelechioidea, pp. 132- 158 in Kristensen, Neils P. ed. 1999. Lepidoptera, moths and butterflies. Part 35, Vol. 1 in Handbook of Zoology. Maximilian Fischer ed. Walter de Gryter, New York. 491 pp.
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