Heterobathmia is a genus of
Lepidoptera. It is the only genus in the suborder Heterobathmiina, as well as in the superfamily Heterobathmioidea and in the family Heterobathmiidae. Primitive, day-flying, metallic moths confined to
southernSouth America, the adults eat the pollen of Nothofagus or
southern beech and the larvae
mine the leaves (Kristensen, 1983, 1999). Most known species are undescribed (but see Kristensen and Nielsen, 1978, 1998).
Kristensen, N.P. (1999). The non-Glossatan Moths. Ch. 4, pp. 41–49 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.
Kristensen, N. P. and Nielsen, E.S. (1979). A new subfamily of micropterigid moths from South America. A contribution to the morphology and phylogeny of the Micropterigidae, with a generic catalogue of the family (Lepidoptera: Zeugloptera). Steenstrupia, 5(7):69-147.
Kristensen, N. P. and Nielsen, E.S. (1998). Heterobathmia valvifer n.sp.: a moth with large apparent 'ovipositor valves' (Lepidoptera, Heterobathmiidae). Steenstrupia, 24: 141–156.