Autostichidae, Le Marchand, 1947

Pohl, Greg, Anweiler, Gary, Schmidt, Christian & Kondla, Norbert, 2010, An annotated list of the Lepidoptera of Alberta, Canada, ZooKeys 38 (38), pp. 1-549 : 78

30. Autostichidae – autostichid moths

Small (10–20 mm wingspan) moths with moderately broad, rounded wings. Adults resemble oecophorids and those of many species are brightly colored. Larvae feed on dead and decaying plant and animal material.

The family Autostichidae is a diverse group, containing several subfamilies that have previously been placed in their own families or in the Elachistidae , Oecophoridae , or Blastobasinae . Th ey were united by Hodges (1999a) on the basis of genital and wing characters. Approximately 300 species are known, from all parts of the world except the Paleotropical region. Five species are known in North America, all in the subfamily Symmocinae . Two species are known from AB. Th is family has not been revised, but information on some species is available in Clarke (1941) and Powell (1992).