Family Acrolophidae: Burrowing webworms
| Diagnosis: Vertex of head with ‘bristly’
vestiture; eyes often visibly hairy; proboscis minute or absent;
maxillary palip minute and two segmented; labial palpi long, upturned,
often recurved, and three segmented; both wings with media stem
preserved in discal cell.
Diversity: About 300 species confined to the New World, 80 in North America, two in North Dakota. Checklist numbers: 327- 386. Biology: Larvae typically construct long silken tubes in the soil. Larvae are detritivores but may also feed on living plant tissue. A few species are coprophagous.
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| Further reading:
Davis, Donald R. and Gaden S. Robinson, Chapter 7. The Tineoidea and Gracillarioidea 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. Hasbrouck, Frank F. 1964. Moths of the family Acrolophidae in America north of Mexico (Microlepidoptera). Proc. U.S. Natl. Mus. 114: 487-706. Scoble, Malcom J. 1992. Chapter 11. Lower Ditrysia, pp. 225- 254 in The Lepidoptera: form, function, and diversity. Oxford Univ. press. 1982. 404 pp.
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