Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Clickable Guide
Interactive image map to choose major taxa 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

Calendar
Upcoming Events

National Moth Week was July 19-27, and the Summer 2025 gathering in Louisiana, July 19-27

Photos of insects and people from the 2024 BugGuide gathering in Idaho July 24-27

Moth submissions from National Moth Week 2024

Photos of insects and people from the 2022 BugGuide gathering in New Mexico, July 20-24

Photos of insects and people from the Spring 2021 gathering in Louisiana, April 28-May 2

Photos of insects and people from the 2019 gathering in Louisiana, July 25-27


Tribe Litini

Representative Images

Telphusa longifasciella small moth - Coleotechnites Coleotechnites atrupictella - male moth - Sinoe - male black-dotted moth - Coleotechnites Coleotechnites variiella Gelechiid ex Betula papyrifera Horseshoe Lake leaf miner Caloptilia on Prunus angustifolia D4696 2023 1 - Agnippe prunifoliella
Show images of: caterpillars · adults · both

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)
Superfamily Gelechioidea (Twirler Moths and kin)
Family Gelechiidae (Twirler Moths)
Subfamily Gelechiinae
Tribe Litini

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

synonymy Litini Bruand, 1859 (=Teleiodini Piskunov, 1973; = Exoteleiini Омелько, 1999) was established in Ponomarenko (2005)

Numbers

94 species in 14 genera occur in the Nearctic Region (1)

Identification

Most genera in Litini lack distinctive external features, and many species lack contrasting colors and patterns. Thus, examination of genital characters is important for diagnoses (1)

Life Cycle

Most known larvae of Litini feed in folded or rolled leaves that are webbed together, some feed as leaf or needle miners, and others feed in buds, flowers, stems, seeds, and cones (1)

Works Cited

1.Revision of Holarctic Teleiodini (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae)
Sangmi Lee & Richard L. Brown (2008). 2008. Zootaxa 1818: 1–55 .