Schreckensteinioidea is a superfamily

Taxonomy

Taxonomy is the science of identifying and naming species, and arranging them into a classification. The field of taxonomy, sometimes referred to as "biological taxonomy", revolves around the description and use of taxonomic units, known as taxa...

 in the insect

Insect

Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

 order

Taxonomy

Taxonomy is the science of identifying and naming species, and arranging them into a classification. The field of taxonomy, sometimes referred to as "biological taxonomy", revolves around the description and use of taxonomic units, known as taxa...

 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...

 containing a single family

Taxonomy

Taxonomy is the science of identifying and naming species, and arranging them into a classification. The field of taxonomy, sometimes referred to as "biological taxonomy", revolves around the description and use of taxonomic units, known as taxa...

, Schreckensteiniidae, or "bristle-legged moths", because of the stout spines on the hindlegs. The relationships of this family within the group Apoditrysia

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...

http://www.tolweb.org/apoditrysia are currently uncertain. One of the species, the Blackberry Skeletoniser Schreckensteinia festaliella

Schreckensteinia festaliella

The Blackberry Skeletonizer is a moth of the Schreckensteiniidae family. It is native to Eurasia, but introduced to North America and now widespread from California and Alberta to at least Quebec and the north-eastern United States.The wingspan is 10–12 mm. Adults are on wing from March to...

, is widespread and common across Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 and has been introduced as a biological control to Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

, whilst three species of Corsocasis occur in South East Asia (Dugdale et al., 1999).

External links

• Swedish Moths
• UK moths
• http://internt.nhm.ac.uk/jdsml/research-curation/projects/lepindex/list.dsml?searchPageURL=indexadv.dsml&UserID=&UserName=&SCIENTIFIC_NAME_on_cardqtype=starts+with&SCIENTIFIC_NAME_on_card=&Current_superfamilyqtype=starts+with&Current_superfamily=Schreckensteinioidea&Original_Authorqtype=starts+with&Original_Author=&Current_familyqtype=starts+with&Current_family=&Original_Year=&Current_subfamilyqtype=starts+with&Current_subfamily=&Current_rank_of_name=&Current_tribeqtype=starts+with&Current_tribe=&OriginalRank=&Current_genusqtype=starts+with&Current_genus=&ZooRegion=&Distrib=&Distribqtype=contains&recLimit=30&sort=SCIENTIFIC_NAME_on_cardAvailable names Lepindex]