Homaledra

Homaledra is a small genus of at least four species small moth of the family Pterolonchidae native to North and South America.

Homaledra
Homaledra heptathalama is sometimes known as the "exclamation moth" - see the wing pattern
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Pterolonchidae
Genus:	Homaledra Busck, 1900[1]

Taxonomy

It was included in the family Coleophoridae by Ron Hodges in 1983. Hodges then moved it to the subfamily Batrachedrinae of the Batrachedridae in 1999.^[1][2][3] In 2014, a cladistic analysis performed by Heikkilä et al., made them deem it necessary to reclassify the genus in the family Pterolonchidae.^[4]

In 1997 Hodges moved the two South American species Pammeces citraula and P. crocoxysta to Homaledra.^[5]

Species

The following species are known:^[1]

• Homaledra citraula (Meyrick, 1922) - Peru
• Homaledra crocoxysta (Meyrick, 1922) - Brazil
• Homaledra heptathalama Busck, 1900 - Alabama, Florida and South Carolina.^[6]
• Homaledra sabalella (Chambers, 1880) - Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas,^[7] Puerto Rico, Hispaniola and Cuba.

Ecology

Homaledra heptathalama feeds in the folds on the undersides of the palm fronds, using silk bolstered with its frass to construct a small elongate chamber to which it adds, as it grows, successively larger, more or less rectangular, thick-walled, communicating rooms, usually building up to eight.^[8]

Uses

At least two species are pests of palms in Florida.