Heterobathmia is a genus of Lepidoptera. It is the only genus in the suborder Heterobathmiina, as well as in the superfamily Heterobathmioidea and in the family Heterobathmiidae. Primitive, day-flying, metallic moths confined to southern South America, the adults eat the pollen of Nothofagus or southern beech and the larvae mine the leaves (Kristensen, 1983, 1999). Most known species are undescribed (but see Kristensen and Nielsen, 1978, 1998).

A possible fossil member of the family, Preheterobathmia is known from the mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber of Myanmar.[1]

References

  1. ^ Mey, Wolfram (2024-01-05). "Preheterobathmia gen. nov. – a new non-glossatan taxon from Myanmar amber tentatively assigned to Heterobathmiidae (Insecta, Lepidoptera)". Nota Lepidopterologica. 47: 1–10. doi:10.3897/nl.47.111080. ISSN 2367-5365.
  • Kristensen, N. P.; Nielsen, E. S. (1983). "The Heterobathmia life history elucidated: Immature stages contradict assignment to suborder Zeugloptera (Insecta, Lepidoptera)". Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research. 21 (2): 101–124. doi:10.1111/j.1439-0469.1983.tb00280.x.
  • Kristensen, N.P. (1999). The non-Glossatan Moths. Ch. 4, pp. 41–49 in Kristensen, N.P. (Ed.). Lepidoptera, Moths and Butterflies. Volume 1: Evolution, Systematics, and Biogeography. Handbuch der Zoologie. Eine Naturgeschichte der Stämme des Tierreiches / Handbook of Zoology. A Natural History of the phyla of the Animal Kingdom. Band / Volume IV Arthropoda: Insecta Teilband / Part 35: 491 pp. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York.
  • Kristensen, N. P. and Nielsen, E.S. (1979). A new subfamily of micropterigid moths from South America. A contribution to the morphology and phylogeny of the Micropterigidae, with a generic catalogue of the family (Lepidoptera: Zeugloptera). Steenstrupia, 5(7):69-147.
  • Kristensen, N. P. and Nielsen, E.S. (1998). Heterobathmia valvifer n.sp.: a moth with large apparent 'ovipositor valves' (Lepidoptera, Heterobathmiidae). Steenstrupia, 24: 141–156.

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