Quick question

[Doug Yanega]

Joe wrote:

>You should look at the phylogeny at the Tree of Life WWW site, URL:
>
>http://phylogeny.arizona.edu/tree/eukaryotes/animals/arthropoda/hexapoda/le
>pidoptera/lepidoptera.html

I'll note that this is based on a 1991 publication. The Zoo Rec list is
newer, but I found one (http://www.troplep.org/famlist.htm) even newer than
the ZR, based on a 1998 pub by Heppner, though I think it has a few
oddities not in keeping with the opinions of genuine authorities (e.g.,
placing Limacodidae and its relatives in the Cossoidea rather than
Zygaenoidea, as Marc Epstein considers them to be). Based on the number of
changes between each successive scheme (Galacticidae, for example, bounces
from the Tineoidea to the Yponomeutoidea to the Sesioidea [incl.
Urodoidea]), it looks like we're a LONG way from a stable classification.

Peace,


Doug Yanega        Dept. of Entomology         Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
phone: (909) 787-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
                http://insects.ucr.edu/staff/yanega.html
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82