Cossoidea

Cossoidea
Cossidae spp.
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Infraorder: Heteroneura
Clade: Eulepidoptera
Clade: Ditrysia
Clade: Apoditrysia
Superfamily: Cossoidea
Leach, [1815]
Families

Cossidae - carpenter moths
Dudgeoneidae - dudgeon carpenter moths
and see text

Diversity
about 676 species

Cossoidea is the superfamily of moths that includes carpenter moths and relatives. Like their likely sister group Sesioidea they are internal feeders and have spiny pupae with moveable segments to allow them to extrude out of their exit holes in stems and trunks during emergence of the adult (Edwards et al., 1999).

The Limacodidae are sometimes included here as a third family. But the Sesioidea, and perhaps the Zygaenoidea and/or Tortricoidea, seem to be close relatives of the Cossoidea, and the relation of these – in particular the Zygaenoidea – to the Limacodidae requires further study.