Ceratophaga: taxon details and analytics

Domain
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Arthropoda
Class
Insecta
Order
Lepidoptera
Family
Tineidae
Genus
Ceratophaga
Species
Scientific Name
Ceratophaga

Summary description from Wikipedia:

Ceratophaga

Ceratophaga is a genus of moths belonging to the family Tineidae. The genus name comes from Ancient Greek κέρας (kéras), meaning 'horn', and φάγος (phágos), meaning 'eater'. Sixteen species are currently recognised, widespread in the Afrotropical realm and Asia. In the Americas one species has been described: Ceratophaga vicinella, which occurs in the southeastern United States. Twelve of the known species occur in Africa, and of those Ceratophaga vastella is perhaps the best-known.

The larvae of most Tineidae (of which clothes moths are the most familiar) have adapted to feeding on non-herbaceous material, but Ceratophaga are remarkable in that they feed, apparently exclusively, on solid keratin from dead vertebrates. For most species this usually means the horns and hooves of ungulates, but the North American Ceratophaga vicinella feeds on the shells of the tortoise Gopherus polyphemus.

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Ceratophaga
©Nikola Szucsich, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ceratophaga
©Nikola Szucsich, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ceratophaga
©Jonathan Newman, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ceratophaga
©Ricky Taylor, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ceratophaga
©Ricky Taylor, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ceratophaga
©Ricky Taylor, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ceratophaga
©Ryan van Huyssteen, some rights reserved (CC-BY-SA)
Ceratophaga
©Wolf-Achim and Hanna Roland, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ceratophaga
©Alex Dreyer, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ceratophaga
©Alex Dreyer, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ceratophaga
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Ceratophaga
©Alex Dreyer, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ceratophaga
©Alex Dreyer, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ceratophaga
©Christine Sydes, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ceratophaga
©Christine Sydes, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ceratophaga
©Martin Grimm, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ceratophaga
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Ceratophaga
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Ceratophaga
©magdastlucia, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ceratophaga
©Christiaan Viljoen, some rights reserved (CC-BY)
Ceratophaga
©Christiaan Viljoen, some rights reserved (CC-BY)
Ceratophaga
©Annika Lindqvist, some rights reserved (CC-BY)
Ceratophaga
©Annika Lindqvist, some rights reserved (CC-BY)
Ceratophaga
©Ryan Tippett, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ceratophaga
©Wolf-Achim and Hanna Roland, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ceratophaga
©J. Allen Ratzlaff, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC-ND)
Ceratophaga
©Martin Grimm, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ceratophaga
©Martin Grimm, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ceratophaga
©Simon Tonge, some rights reserved (CC0)