Bombycidae Latreille, 1802

Wang, Xing, Wang, Min, Zolotuhin, Vadim V., Hirowatari, Toshiya, Wu, Shipher & Huang, Guo-Hua, 2015, The fauna of the family Bombycidae sensu lato (Insecta, Lepidoptera, Bombycoidea) from Mainland China, Taiwan and Hainan Islands, Zootaxa 3989 (1), pp. 1-138 : 6

Family Bombycidae Latreille, 1802

Diagnosis. The family is characterized by the dorsal pleated zone of the hindwing, which is the most heavily patterned part of the wing and often somewhat concave. The frenulum is present but very short and rather stout. The diagnostic features of the female genitalia for this family are indistinct.

Distribution. The family is recorded from all Old World zoogeographic regions and New World with the subfamily Epiinae , but has its greatest diversity in the Oriental Region.

Remarks. The most famous member of the family is the silkworm, Bombyx mori , which has been domesticated for millennia in China. Another well known species is Bombyx mandarina , which is also native to Asia. In the New World, the family Apatelodidae has previously been regarded as Bombycidae ( Minet, 1994) , but are now considered distinct, though allied to the Bombycidae , Eupterotidae and Anthelidae ( Zwick, 2008; Zwick et al., 2011). In China, the genera of family Bombycidae s. lat. are be divided into three subfamilies based on characters of the wing venation and male genitalia, as well as preimaginal characteristics. The Chinese bombycid fauna is mainly Sino-Himalayan, but with some Indo-Malayan and Eastern Palaearctic elements.