Cecidosidae is a family of primitive
monotrysian moths in the order
Lepidoptera which have a piercing ovipositor used for laying eggs in plant tissue in which they induce
galls, or they mine in bark (Davis, 1999; Hoare and Dugdale, 2003). Nine species occur in southern
Africa, five species in
South America (Parra, 1998) and Xanadoses nielseni was recently
described from
New Zealand (Hoare and Dugdale, 2003). Some minute
parasitoid wasps are known (Burks et al., 2005).
References
Burks, R.A. Gibson, G.A.P. and La Salle, J. (2005). Nomenclatural changes in Neotropical Eulophidae, Eupelmidae and Torymidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) relating to parasitoids of Cecidoses eremita (Lepidoptera: Cecidosidae). Zootaxa, 1082: 45–55.
pdf.
Davis, D.R. (1999). The Monotrysian Heteroneura. Ch. 6, pp. 65–90 in Kristensen, N.P. (Ed.). Lepidoptera, Moths and Butterflies. Volume 1: Evolution, Systematics, and Biogeography. Handbuch der Zoologie. Eine Naturgeschichte der Stämme des Tierreiches / Handbook of Zoology. A Natural History of the phyla of the Animal Kingdom. Band / Volume IV Arthropoda: Insecta Teilband / Part 35: 491 pp. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York.
Hoare, R.J.B. and Dugdale, J.S. (2003). Description of the New Zealand incurvarioid Xanadoses nielseni, gen. nov., sp. nov. and placement in Cecidosidae (Lepidoptera). Invertebrate Systematics, 17(1): 47–57.
Parra, L.E. (1998). A redescription of Cecidoses argentinana (Cecidosidae) and its early stages, with comments on its taxonomic position. Nota Lepidopterologica, 21(3): 206–214.
External links
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Cecidosidae.