These are generally small or medium-sized moths with very hairy bodies. The larvae are rather slug-like and, along with the larvae of the sister taxa Limacodidae and Megalopygidae, are often known as slug caterpillars. More specifically, they are also called jewel caterpillars due to the colorful bead-like gelatinous mass covering the exoskeleton of many species.
More than half the described species are in genus Acraga. Apart from this and Dalcerides, all genera have less than 10 known species as of 2016, and some are monotypic. Two subfamilies are usually recognized:
dalceridae, this, article, includes, list, references, related, reading, external, links, sources, remain, unclear, because, lacks, inline, citations, please, help, improve, this, article, introducing, more, precise, citations, february, 2021, learn, when, rem. This article includes a list of references related reading or external links but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations February 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message The Dalceridae are a small family of zygaenoid moths with some 80 verification needed known species encompassing about one dozen genera mostly found in the Neotropical region with a few reaching the far south of the Nearctic region DalceridaeAcraga moorei imagoScientific classificationDomain EukaryotaKingdom AnimaliaPhylum ArthropodaClass InsectaOrder LepidopteraSuperfamily ZygaenoideaFamily DalceridaeDyar 1898Genera11 see textSynonymsAcragidae Hampson 1918These are generally small or medium sized moths with very hairy bodies The larvae are rather slug like and along with the larvae of the sister taxa Limacodidae and Megalopygidae are often known as slug caterpillars More specifically they are also called jewel caterpillars due to the colorful bead like gelatinous mass covering the exoskeleton of many species Larva of Acraga coa showing gelatinous coveringTaxonomy and systematics editMore than half the described species are in genus Acraga Apart from this and Dalcerides all genera have less than 10 known species as of 2016 and some are monotypic Two subfamilies are usually recognized Subfamily Acraginae Acraga including Anacraga and Dalargentina Dalcerides including Acragopsis ZikanyropsSubfamily Dalcerinae Ca Dalcera Dalcerina including Zadalcera Minacraga Minacragides Minonoa Oroya ParacragaThe genus Protacraga formerly placed here is now usually assigned to the related family Epipyropidae whose caterpillars are usually parasites References editFamily description at Jamaica Moths This article about a taxon in the moth family Dalceridae is a stub You can help Wikipedia by expanding it vte Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Dalceridae amp oldid 1100734134, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
