Everything about Lymantriidae totally explained
Lymantriidae or
Liparidae is a
family of
moths with about 350 known
genera and over 2,500 known
species found all over the world, in every continent except
Antarctica. They are particularly concentrated in
sub-Saharan Africa,
India,
Southeast Asia and
South America; one estimate lists 258 species in
Madagascar alone (Schaefer, 1989). Apart from
oceanic islands, notable places that do
not host Lymantriids include
New Zealand, the
Antilles, and
New Caledonia (Schaefer, 1989).
Description
Adult moths of this family don't feed. They usually have muted colours (browns and greys), although some are white, and tend to be very hairy. Some females are flightless, and some have reduced wings. Usually the females have a large tuft at the end of the abdomen. The males, at least, have
tympanal organs (Scoble, 1995). They are mostly nocturnal, but Schaefer (1989) lists 20 confirmed diurnal species and 20 more likely diurnal species (based on reduced eye size).
The
larvae are also hairy, often with hairs packed in tufts, and in many species the hairs break off very easily and are extremely irritating to the skin (especially members of the genus
Euproctis; Schaefer, 1989). This highly effective defence serves the moth throughout its life cycle as the hairs are incorporated into the
cocoon, from where they're collected and stored by the emerging adult female at the tip of the
abdomen and used to camouflage and protect the
eggs as they're laid. In others, the eggs are covered by a froth that soon hardens, or are camouflaged by material the female collects and sticks to them (Schaefer, 1989). In the larvae of some species, hairs are gathered in dense tufts along the back and this gives them the common name of
tussocks or
tussock moths.
Lymantria means "defiler", and several species are important defoliators of forest trees, including the
gypsy moth Lymantria dispar, the
douglas-fir tussock moth Orgyia pseudotsugata, and the
nun moth Lymantria monacha. They tend to have broader host plant ranges than most Lepidoptera. Most feed on trees and shrubs, but some are known from vines, herbs, grasses and lichens (Schaefer, 1989).
Systematics
Unusually, this family isn't divided into
subfamilies but only into
tribes. This owes to the fact that the diversity and
phylogeny of tropical lymantriids isn't well known (Ferguson 1978, Holloway 2006).
Genera
incertae sedis - that is, not assigned to a tribe - include:
Notable species and genera
Brown-tail, Euproctis chrysorrhoea
Yellow-tail, Euproctis similis
Gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar
Nun Moth, Lymantria monacha
Pale tussock moth, Calliteara pudibunda
Pine tussock moth, Dasychira plagiata
Arctic woollybear moth, Gynaephora groenlandica
Rusty tussock moth or Vapourer, Orgyia antiqua
Western tussock moth, Orgyia vetusta
White-marked tussock moth, Orgyia leucostigma
Douglas-fir tussock moth, Orgyia pseudostugata
Satin moth, Leucoma salicis
Coca moth, Eloria noyesi
Painted apple moth, Teia anartoides
Rahona
See also list of lymantriid generaFurther Information
Get more info on 'Lymantriidae'.
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