Cenopis lamberti - Hodges#3725.1
Cenopis lamberti
This record describes Cenopis lamberti (species). Recorded family: Tortricidae. Recorded order: Lepidoptera.
Identification and Appearance
Classification
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Arthropoda
- Class
- Insecta
- Order
- Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)
- Superfamily
- Tortricoidea
- Family
- Tortricidae (Tortricid Moths)
- Subfamily
- Tortricinae
- Tribe
- Sparganothini
- Genus
- Cenopis
Imported taxonomy record. Source availability varies; see the source references and editorial policy below.
Habitat and Range
Geographic Range
Virginia to Florida, west to eastern Texas. Holotype male: Cherry Hill Recreation Area, Route 107, 2000 ft., Oconee County, South Carolina, 22 August 1958 (J. Franclemont).
Diet and Behavior
Diet: Purportedly reared once from a larva collected on Persea (Lauraceae) , but the host plant may have been misidentified. Now known to feed on the superficially similar shrub Symplocos tinctoria , initially as a leafminer and later as a leaftier .
Additional species information
Species notes from the sources
Etymology: Named in honor of "the late Robert Lambert who completed a preliminary review of the genus Sparganothis for his doctoral dissertation at Cornell University."
About Butterflies and Moths: the wider group
Order-level background for Lepidoptera, the group containing Cenopis lamberti. Species-specific details appear above.
Group overview
Lepidoptera includes approximately 180,000 described species of butterflies and moths. Moths outnumber butterflies roughly 10:1. The monarch butterfly's eastern population has declined by more than 80% since the mid-1990s, and the western population by over 95% since the 1980s. The IUCN lists the migratory monarch as Vulnerable.
Ecological role of the group
Butterflies and moths are essential indicators of ecosystem health. As caterpillars, they are a primary food source for birds - a single nest of blue tit chicks requires ~10,000 caterpillars. Adult moths pollinate many night-blooming plants.
Economic and practical significance of the group
Lepidoptera are critical pollinators. In Europe, grassland butterfly species have declined by almost 50% since the early 1990s. In the UK, three-quarters of butterflies are in decline. In the U.S., five butterfly species have gone extinct since 1950, with 29 listed as endangered.
Recorded sources for this group: IUCN Red List, Xerces Society, USFWS, PNAS, WWF. Imported estimates may describe particular regions or reporting periods.
Photos of Cenopis lamberti - Hodges#3725.1 (5)
Photo credits: Contributed by Charley Eiseman; Additional contributions by Randy Hardy