Purple Carrot-seed Moth
Depressaria depressana
This record describes Depressaria depressana (species). Recorded family: Depressariidae. Recorded order: Lepidoptera.
Identification and Appearance
Blunt’s flat-body or purple carrot-seed moth (Depressaria depressana) is a moth of the Depressariidae family. It is found in most of Europe. It is also found in the Near East, North Africa, the eastern part of the Palearctic ecozone and since 2009 in North America. In the former USSR, it is distributed in the entire European part except for the Far North. It is also found in the northern Caucasus and Transcaucasia (Georgia and Armenia), in...
Wikipedia reference for Depressaria depressana: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depressaria_depressana.
Classification
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Arthropoda
- Class
- Insecta
- Order
- Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)
- Superfamily
- Gelechioidea
- Family
- Depressariidae (Flat-bodied moths)
- Subfamily
- Depressariinae
- Genus
- Depressaria
Imported taxonomy record. Source availability varies; see the source references and editorial policy below.
About Butterflies and Moths: the wider group
Order-level background for Lepidoptera, the group containing Depressaria depressana. 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.
