Epicephala: taxon details and analytics
- Domain
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Arthropoda
- Class
- Insecta
- Order
- Lepidoptera
- Family
- Gracillariidae
- Genus
- Epicephala
- Species
- Scientific Name
- Epicephala
Summary description from Wikipedia:
Epicephala
Epicephala (leafflower moths) is a genus of moths in the family Gracillariidae.
Epicephala is of note in the fields of pollination biology and coevolution because many species in this genus are pollinators of plants in the genera Glochidion, Phyllanthus, and Breynia (Phyllanthaceae). These pollinating Epicephala actively pollinate the flowers of their host plants—thereby ensuring that the plants may produce viable seeds—but also lay eggs in the flowers' ovaries, where their larvae consume a subset of the developing seeds as nourishment. This relationship is similar to other specialized pollinating seed-predation mutualisms such as those between figs and fig wasps and yuccas and yucca moths.
Other species of Epicephala consume the seeds of species of Phyllanthus or Flueggea (Phyllanthaceae) as larvae, but do not pollinate their host plants as adults. At least some of these species have evolved from pollinating ancestors.
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Parent Taxon
Sibling Taxa
Child Taxa
- Epicephala acinacephora
- Epicephala acrobaphes
- Epicephala acrocarpa
- Epicephala albifrons
- Epicephala albistriatella
- Epicephala ancistropis
- Epicephala ancylopa
- Epicephala anthophilia
- Epicephala australis
- Epicephala bathrobaphes
- Epicephala bromias
- Epicephala calasiris
- Epicephala colymbetella
- Epicephala epimicta
- Epicephala euchalina
- Epicephala eugonia
- Epicephala exetastis
- Epicephala flagellata
- Epicephala frenata
- Epicephala haplodoxa
- Epicephala homostola
- Epicephala jansei
- Epicephala lanceolaria
- Epicephala lativalvaris
- Epicephala lomatographa
- Epicephala nephelodes
- Epicephala obovatella
- Epicephala orientale
- Epicephala pelopepla
- Epicephala periplecta
- Epicephala pyrrhogastra
- Epicephala relictella
- Epicephala scythropis
- Epicephala sphenitis
- Epicephala spinula
- Epicephala spumosa
- Epicephala squamella
- Epicephala stauropa
- Epicephala strepsiploca
- Epicephala subtilis
- Epicephala tephrostola
- Epicephala trigonophora
- Epicephala venenata
- Epicephala vermiformis
- Epicephala zalosticha




























































































































































