"Goat Miller" redirects here. For the species called "Goat Miller", see Cossus cossus

Cossus cossus

The Goat Moth is a moth of the family Cossidae. It is found in Europe.This is a large heavy moth with a wingspan of 68–96 mm. The wings are greyish brown and marked with fine dark cross lines...

.

Cossidae, the cossid millers or carpenter millers, make up a 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...

 of mostly large miller moth

Miller (moth)

The Miller is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found throughout Europe apart from the far south-east. It also shows up seasonally in parts of the western United States, such as New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming....

s. Ths family contains over 110 genera

Genera

Genera is a commercial operating system and development environment for Lisp machines developed by Symbolics. It is essentially a fork of an earlier operating system originating on the MIT AI Lab's Lisp machines which Symbolics had used in common with LMI and Texas Instruments...

 with almost 700 known 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...

, and many more species await description. Carpenter millers are nocturnal Lepidoptera

Lepidoptera

Lepidoptera is a large order of insects that includes moths and butterflies . It is one of the most widespread and widely recognizable insect orders in the world, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...

 found worldwide, except the Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...

n subfamily Ratardinae

Ratardinae

The Ratardinae is a small subfamily of large moths from Southeast Asia.-Taxonomy and systematics:Ratardinae is a small subfamily of moths formerly placed in its own family Ratardidae and related to Cossidae. There are three genera, one quite recently described...

 which is mostly active during the day.

This family includes many species with large caterpillar

Caterpillar

Caterpillars are the larval form of members of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly herbivorous in food habit, although some species are insectivorous. Caterpillars are voracious feeders and many of them are considered to be pests in agriculture...

s and moth

Moth

A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...

s with a wingspan

Wingspan

The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...

 from 9–24 cm (6¾ in). These moths are mostly grey in color; some have long narrow wings and resemble hawkmoths (Sphingidae) which are more advanced Macrolepidoptera

Macrolepidoptera

Macrolepidoptera is a group within the insect order Lepidoptera. Traditionally used for the larger butterflies and moths as opposed to the "Microlepidoptera", this group is unnatural. However, it seems that by moving some taxa about, a monophyletic Macrolepidoptera can be easily achieved...

 however. Many are twig, bark or leaf mimic

Mimic

In evolutionary biology, mimicry is the similarity of one species to another which protects one or both. This similarity can be in appearance, behaviour, sound, scent and even location, with the mimics found in similar places to their models....

s, and Cossidae often have some sort of large marking at the tip of the forewing uppersides, conspicuous in flight but resembling a broken-off twig when the animals are resting. Most cossid caterpillars are tree borers, in some species taking up to three years to mature. The caterpillars pupa

Pupa

A pupa is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation. The pupal stage is found only in holometabolous insects, those that undergo a complete metamorphosis, going through four life stages; embryo, larva, pupa and imago...

te within their tunnels; they often have an unpleasant smell, hence another colloquial name is goat moths.

The family includes the Carpenterworm (Prionoxystus robiniae

Prionoxystus robiniae

The Carpenterworm Moth or Locust Borer is a moth of the Cossidae family. It is found in North America, more specifically in Southern Canada and most of the United States....

) and the Goat Moth (Cossus cossus) which have gained notoriety as pests. On the other hand, the large caterpillars of species that do not smell badly are often edible

Entomophagy

Entomophagy is the consumption of insects as food. Insects are eaten by many animals, but the term is generally used to refer to human consumption of insects; animals that eat insects are known as insectivores...

. Witchetty grub

Witchetty grub

The witchetty grub is a term used in Australia for the large, white, wood-eating larvae of several moths...

s – among the Outback

Outback

The Outback is the vast, remote, arid area of Australia, term colloquially can refer to any lands outside the main urban areas. The term "the outback" is generally used to refer to locations that are comparatively more remote than those areas named "the bush".-Overview:The outback is home to a...

's most famous bush tucker – are most commonly the caterpillars of Endoxyla leucomochla

Endoxyla leucomochla

Endoxyla leucomochla is a species of cossid moth endemic to Australia. The larvae of the moth is commonly known as the "witchetty grub", and was widely used as bushfood by Indigenous Australians....

, one of the more than 80 cossid species in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. In Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

, the sweet-smelling caterpillars of the Chilean Moth (Chilecomadia moorei) are harvested in quantity and internationally traded as butterworm

Butterworm

The Chilean Moth is a moth of the Cossidae family. The Butterworm is the larval form and is commonly used as fishing bait in South America....

s, for use as pet food

Pet food

Pet food is plant or animal material intended for consumption by pets. Typically sold in pet stores and supermarkets, it is usually specific to the type of animal, such as dog food or cat food...

 and fishing bait

Fishing bait

Fishing bait is any substance used to attract and catch fish, e.g. on the end of a fishing hook, or inside a fish trap. Traditionally, nightcrawlers, insects, and smaller bait fish have been used for this purpose...

.

Systematics

Some other families, such as Dudgeoneidae

Dudgeoneidae

Dudgeonea is a small genus of moths and the only genus of its family, the Dudgeoneidae. It includes six species distributed sparsely across the Old World from Africa and Madagascar to Australia and New Guinea.-Biology:...

, Metarbelidae and Ratardidae, have been included within this one time and again. The first is considered a distinct family of the Cossoidea

Cossoidea

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 .The...

 today recognizable by their abdominal tympanal organ

Tympanal organ

A tympanal organ is a hearing organ in insects, consisting of a membrane stretched across a frame backed by an air sac and associated sensory neurons...

s which the Cossidae lack, whereas the other two are usually kept in the Cossidae as subfamilies. Some unrelated millers were included in the Cossidae in error too, such as the 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...

 Holcoceroides

Holcoceroides

Holcoceroides is a monotypic genus of carpenter moths .It includes only the species Holcoceroides ferrugineotincta and is doubtfully distinct from Holcocerus. Like the latter, its relationships to other Cossidae are not determined with certainty....

 which are more primitive Ditrysia

Ditrysia

The Ditrysia are a natural group or clade of insects in the Lepidopteran order containing both butterflies and moths. They are so named because the female has two distinct sexual openings: one for mating, and the other for laying eggs .About 98% of described species of Lepidoptera belong to Ditrysia...

, or the Andesianidae which are even more ancient Heteroneura

Heteroneura

Heteroneura is a natural group in the insect order Lepidoptera that comprises over 99% of all butterflies and moths. This is the sister group of the infraorder Exoporia , and is characterised by wing venation which is not similar or homoneurous in both pairs of wings....

.

The Cossidae are today usually divided into six subfamilies, but numerous genera still await placement. The subfamilies, with selected genera and some notable 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...

, are:
Incertae sedis

Incertae sedis

, is a term used to define a taxonomic group where its broader relationships are unknown or undefined. Uncertainty at specific taxonomic levels is attributed by , , and similar terms.-Examples:*The fossil plant Paradinandra suecica could not be assigned to any...

External links

• Flickr Cossidae