Pyralidae, Latreille, 1809

Singh, Navneet, Ranjan, Rahul, Talukdar, Avishek, Joshi, Rahul, Kirti, Jagbir Singh, Chandra, Kailash & Mally, Richard, 2022, A catalogue of Indian Pyraloidea (Lepidoptera), Zootaxa 5197 (1), pp. 1-423 : 16-19

1. Pyralidae

The family Pyralidae comprises 6,197 described species in 1,099 genera (Nuss et al. 2003 – 2022, Léger et al. 2020). Five subfamilies are currently recognized in the family: Epipaschiinae , Pyralinae , Phycitinae, Galleriinae , and Chrysauginae. All subfamilies except the latter are present in India. One large lineage consists of the sister-group Epipaschiinae and Pyralinae , and Phycitinae sister to that group ( Regier et al. 2012, Léger et al. 2020). Chrysauginae and Galleriinae form the second lineage within Pyralidae ( Solis & Mitter 1992, Léger et al. 2020), although the placement of Galleriinae was found to be unstable in the phylogenetic analyses of Solis & Mitter (1992), and of Galleriinae + Monoloxis Hampson (Chrysauginae) in Regier et al. (2012).

The main morphological synapomorphy for Pyralidae are the closed bullae tympani (only open anteriorly), as opposed to the open type found in Crambidae . Furthermore, tympanum and conjunctiva are in the same plane, and a praecinctorium is absent ( Minet 1981, 1985). In the forewing, R 5 is stalked with R 3 + R 4 ( Minet 1981, 1985). The male genitalia exhibit a pair of lateral processes arising from the base of the uncus ( Solis & Mitter 1992). A character diagnostic for pyralid larvae is the sclerotized ring at the base of subdorsal seta 1 (SD 1) on A8 ( Hasenfuss 1960).