Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Clickable Guide
Moths Butterflies Flies Caterpillars Flies Dragonflies Flies Mantids Cockroaches Bees and Wasps Walkingsticks Earwigs Ants Termites Hoppers and Kin Hoppers and Kin Beetles True Bugs Fleas Grasshoppers and Kin Ticks Spiders Scorpions Centipedes Millipedes


TaxonomyBrowse
Info
ImagesLinksBooksData

Superfamily Noctuoidea

Giant Leopard Moth Caterpillar - Hypercompe scribonia Fall Webworm - Hyphantria cunea Phyprosopus callitrichoides - male Leucania insueta Moth - Melipotis jucunda Long toed caterpillar-Heterocampa umbrata 7990? - Heterocampa umbrata Explicit Arches - Hodges #10413 (Lacinipolia explicata) - Lacinipolia explicata Agrotis?  (Yes, another wild guess!)
Show images of: caterpillars · adults · both
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)
No Taxon (Moths)
Superfamily Noctuoidea
Pronunciation
nawk-too-OID-ee-ah
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
The families Erebidae and Nolidae contain many taxa formerly placed in Noctuidae. The family Doidae contains two North American species formerly placed in Arctiidae.
One North American species, Phryganidia californica, formerly placed in a separate family (Dioptidae) is now included in the subfamily Dioptinae within Notodontidae.
Numbers
Includes six North American families, according to Lafontaine & Schmidt (1)
Remarks
The higher classification of the superfamily Noctuoidea is presently under study, and further changes are inevitable. BugGuide currently follows the classification in the 2010 Lafontaine & Schmidt paper (see Internet References, below).
Print References
Kitching, I.J., and J.E. Rawlins. 1999. (The Noctuoidea, pp. 355-401 in Kristensen N.P. (editor). Lepidoptera: Moths and butterflies. Volume 1: Evolution, systematics and biogeography. Handbook of Zoology/Handbuch der Zoologie. Walter de Gruyter. Berlin/New York).