Sematuridae is a family of in the order that contains two Subfamily (Minet and Malcolm Scoble, 1999).
Taxonomy, systematics, and identification
These are large day- or night-flying moths, usually tailed and similar to
Uraniidae in general appearance
[1] (except for the
genera Apoprogones,
Anuropteryx and
Lonchotura). The position of this family is not certain amongst the
Macrolepidoptera but it is usually considered to belong to the superfamily
Geometroidea, whilst the identity of its closest
Extant taxon relative is under investigation using
DNA sequencing[2] . Until recently very little has been known of sematurid biology (but see
Sematurinae). The "chaetosemata" of Sematuridae have long
setae overhanging the
Arthropod eye, the antennae are thickened towards the often rather clubbed or hooked tip whilst a
tympanal organ for hearing is always absent and there are other diagnostic characters in the abdomen (Minet and Scoble, 1999: 305-307; Holloway et al., 2001).
Distribution
Apoprogoninae is represented by a single species in
South Africa whilst
Sematurinae is represented by about 29 (41 including the genera
Anurapteryx and
Lonchotura) species in the
Neotropics.
Such an apparently relictual distribution might relate to the geological split of
South America and
Africa, but there is as yet no evidence for the age of
evolutionary divergence of
Neotropical and
Afrotropical representatives; moreover, new
Genetics material would be needed for the
taxon as well as the
Americas genera
Anurapteryx and
Lonchotura for a modern molecular approach to this problem to succeed
[3].
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Holloway, J.D., Kibby, G and Peggie, D. (1997). The families of Malesian moths and butterflies. Fauna Malesia Handbooks. 455 pp. Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden.
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Minet, J. and Scoble, M. J. (1999) 1998. The Drepanoid/Geometroid Assemblage. Pp. 301–320 in Kristensen, N.P. (Ed.), Lepidoptera, Moths and Butterflies. Volume 1, Evolution, Systematics, and Biogeography. Handbook of Zoology, vol. IV, Arthropoda: Insecta, Part 35: 491 pp. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin and New York.
