"Rhipidophora" redirects here. In botany, this refers to a genus of diatom

Diatom

Diatoms are a major group of algae, and are one of the most common types of phytoplankton. Most diatoms are unicellular, although they can exist as colonies in the shape of filaments or ribbons , fans , zigzags , or stellate colonies . Diatoms are producers within the food chain...

s.

Alucita is the largest genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of many-plumed moth

Many-plumed moth

| name = Many-plumed moths| image = Alucita hexadactyla .jpg| image_width = 240px| image_caption = Twenty-plume Moth| regnum = Animalia| phylum = Arthropoda| classis = Insecta| ordo = Lepidoptera| subordo = Glossata...

s (family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Alucitidae); it is also the type genus

Type genus

In biological classification, a type genus is a representative genus, as with regard to a biological family. The term and concept is used much more often and much more formally in zoology than it is in botany, and the definition is dependent on the nomenclatural Code that applies:* In zoological...

 of its family and the disputed superfamily

Superfamily

The term superfamily is used to describe several different concepts in different scientific fields:* Superfamily and Superfamily : a level of biological classification; redirects to Taxonomic rank...

 Alucitoidea

Alucitoidea

Aluctoidea is the superfamily of many-plumed and false plume moths. These small moths are most easily reccognized by their wings. These each consist of many narrow strips of membrane around the major veins, instead of a continuous sheet of membrane between the veins. In living moths in the wild,...

. This genus occurs almost world-wide and contains about 180 species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 as of 2011; new species are still being described and discovered regularly. Formerly, many similar moths of superfamilies Alucitoidea, Copromorphoidea

Copromorphoidea

Copromorphoidea, the "fruitworm moths" is a superfamily of insects in the lepidopteran order. These moths are small to medium-sized and are broad-winged bearing some resemblance to the superfamilies Tortricoidea and Immoidea...

 and Pterophoroidea were also placed in Alucita.

It was established by Carl Linné

Carolus Linnaeus

Carl Linnaeus , also known after his ennoblement as , was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology...

 in the 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae

10th edition of Systema Naturae

The 10th edition of Systema Naturae was a book written by Carl Linnaeus and published in two volumes in 1758 and 1759, which marks the starting point of zoological nomenclature...

 as a subgenus

Subgenus

In biology, a subgenus is a taxonomic rank directly below genus.In zoology, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between the generic name and the specific epithet: e.g. the Tiger Cowry of the Indo-Pacific, Cypraea tigris Linnaeus, which...

 of Phalaena

Phalaena

Phalaena is an obsolete genus Lepidoptera used by Carl Linnaeus to house most moths.Phalaena was one of three genera used by Linnaeus to cover all Lepidoptera. Papilio included all butterflies at that time, Sphinx included all hawk moths, and Phalaena included all the remaining moths...

, Linné's "wastebin genus" for moths. Johan Christian Fabricius

Johan Christian Fabricius

Johan Christian Fabricius was a Danish zoologist, specialising in "Insecta", which at that time included all arthropods: insects, arachnids, crustaceans and others...

 in 1775 seems to have been the first author to consider Alucita a genus in its own right, and it remains so until today. However, some subsequent authors believed Linné's name to be invalid, and established alternate names for this genus. But while the oldest of these, Pierre André Latreille

Pierre André Latreille

Pierre André Latreille was a French zoologist, specialising in arthropods. Having trained as a Roman Catholic priest before the French Revolution, Latreille was imprisoned, and only regained his freedom after recognising a rare species he found in the prison, Necrobia ruficollis...

's Orneodes, was used instead of Alucita for long, all these subsequent names are today recognized as junior synonyms.