Crambidae

Crambidae
Scoparia ambigualis
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Superfamily: Pyraloidea
Family: Crambidae
Latreille, 1810
Type species
Phalaena pascuella
Subfamilies

see text

Diversity
Some 10,347 species

Crambidae comprises the grass moth family of lepidopterans. They are variable in appearance, with the nominal subfamily Crambinae (grass moths) taking up closely folded postures on grass stems where they are inconspicuous, while other subfamilies include brightly coloured and patterned insects that rest in wing-spread attitudes.

In many classifications, the Crambidae have been treated as a subfamily of the Pyralidae or snout moths. The principal difference is a structure in the tympanal organs called the praecinctorium, which joins two tympanic membranes in the Crambidae, and is absent from the Pyralidae. The latest review by Munroe and Solis, in Kristensen (1999), retains the Crambidae as a full family. The family currently comprises 15 subfamilies with altogether 10,347 species in over 1,000 genera.[1]


  1. ^ Léger, Théo; Mally, Richard; Neinhuis, Christoph; Nuss, Matthias (2020). "Refining the phylogeny of Crambidae with complete sampling of subfamilies (Lepidoptera, Pyraloidea)". Zoologica Scripta. 50 (1): 84–99. doi:10.1111/zsc.12452.