Bombycoidea Explained

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Bombycoidea is a superfamily of moths, including the silk moths, giant silk moths, sphinx moths, saturniids, and relatives. The superfamily Lasiocampoidea is a close relative and was historically sometimes merged in this group. After many years of debate and shifting taxonomies, the most recent classifications treat the superfamily as containing 10 constituent families.^[1]

Characteristics

Bombycoid larvae often exhibit horns.^[2] In the adult stage they are typically large, and include the largest moths in the world.

Families

Bombycoidea includes the following families:

• Anthelidae
• Apatelodidae
• Bombycidae
• Brahmaeidae (syn. Lemoniidae)
• Carthaeidae
• Endromidae (syn. Mirinidae)
• Eupterotidae
• Phiditiidae
• Saturniidae
• Sphingidae

Notes and References

1. Kitching I, Rougerie R, Zwick A, Hamilton C, St Laurent R, Naumann S, Ballesteros Mejia L, Kawahara A (2018) A global checklist of the Bombycoidea (Insecta: Lepidoptera). Biodiversity Data Journal 6: e22236. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.6.e22236
2. Firefly Encyclopedia of Insects and Spiders, edited by Christopher O'Toole,, 2002