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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Butterflies and Moths (Lepidoptera) » Ermine Moths and kin (Yponomeutoidea) » Ypsolophidae » Ypsolopha

Genus Ypsolopha

Micro Moth Caterpillar? - Ypsolopha walsinghamiella

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 Yponomeutoidea (Ermine Moths and kin)

Family Ypsolophidae

Genus Ypsolopha

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

Ypsolopha Latreille, [1796]

* placed by some authors in the family Plutellidae, or in the family Yponomeutidae (subfamily Plutellinae)

Explanation of Names

ypsil, -o is Greek for Y-shaped

loph is Greek for a crest or tuft (1)

Identification

Small moths with fairly broad forewings, hooked at the tip; at rest, the hooked tips project upward, giving a "duck-tailed" profile.

Range

Much of North America and southern Canada. Also represented throughout Eurasia.

Food

Larvae feed on leaves of various shrubs and trees.

Print References

Busck, 1903. (key to species) (2)

Busck, 1906. (key to species) (3)

Internet References

live adult images of Y. dentella (Lynn Scott, Ontario)

live larva image of Y. cervella plus description, food plant, and seasonality (Jeffrey Miller, Caterpillars of Pacific Northwest Forests and Woodlands; USGS)

live larva image of Y. dentella (Ben Smart, UK Moths)

classification of genus Ypsolopha in family Ypsolophidae (Brian Pitkin et al, Butterflies & Moths of the World)

Works Cited

1.	Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms Donald J. Borror. 1960. Mayfield Publishing Company.

2.	Notes on the Cerostoma group of Yponomeutidae, with descriptions of new North American species August Busck. 1903. Journal of the New York Entomological Society, 11: 45-59.

3.	Description of American moths of the genus Cerostoma Busck, A. 1906. Entomological News, and Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 17; 96-99.

Contributed by Robin McLeod on 20 November, 2005 - 12:23pm
Additional contributions by Steve Nanz, Randy Hardy
Last updated 3 October, 2016 - 11:44am

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