The Exoporia are a group of primitive
Lepidoptera comprising the superfamilies
Mnesarchaeoidea and
Hepialoidea.[1][2] They are a natural group or
clade. Exoporia is the
sister group of the lepidopteran
infraorderHeteroneura. They are characterised by their unique female reproductive system which has an external groove between the ostium bursae and the
ovipore by which the
sperm is transferred to the egg rather than having the mating and egg-laying parts of the
abdomen with a common opening (
cloaca) as in other
nonditrysianmoths, or with separate openings linked internally by a "ductus seminalis" as in the
Ditrysia. See Kristensen (1999: 57) for other exoporian characteristics.
^Kristensen, N.P., (1999) [1998]. The non-Glossatan Moths. Ch. 4, pp. 41–62 in Kristensen, N.P. (Ed.). Lepidoptera, Moths and Butterflies. Volume 1: Evolution, Systematics, and Biogeography. Handbook of Zoology. A Natural History of the phyla of the Animal Kingdom. Band / Volume
^Nielsen, E.S., Robinson, G.S. and Wagner, D.L. 2000. Ghost-moths of the world: a global inventory and bibliography of the Exoporia (Mnesarchaeoidea and Hepialoidea) (Lepidoptera) Journal of Natural History, 34(6): 823-878.
IV Arthropoda: Insecta Teilband / Part 35: 491 pp. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York.