Editing Lepidoptera (section)

=== History of study ===
{{main|Lepidopterology}}
[[File:Natural-Sciences-Museum-in-Cherni-Osam.jpg|thumb|Lepidoptera collection in Cherni Osam Natural Sciences Museum, [[Troyan]], [[Bulgaria]]]]

Linnaeus in ''[[Systema Naturae]]'' (1758) recognized three divisions of the Lepidoptera: ''Papilio'', ''Sphinx'' and ''[[Phalaena]]'', with seven subgroups in ''Phalaena''.<ref name="scoble"/> These persist today as 9 of the superfamilies of Lepidoptera. Other works on classification followed including those by [[Michael Denis]] & [[Ignaz Schiffermüller]] (1775), [[Johan Christian Fabricius]] (1775) and [[Pierre André Latreille]] (1796). [[Jacob Hübner]] described many genera, and the lepidopteran genera were catalogued by [[Ferdinand Ochsenheimer]] and [[Georg Friedrich Treitschke]] in a series of volumes on the lepidopteran fauna of Europe published between 1807 and 1835.<ref name="scoble"/> [[Gottlieb August Wilhelm Herrich-Schäffer]] (several volumes, 1843–1856), and [[Edward Meyrick]] (1895) based their classifications primarily on wing venation. Sir [[George Francis Hampson]] worked on the microlepidoptera during this period and [[Philipp Christoph Zeller]] published ''The Natural History of the Tineinae'' also on microlepidoptera (1855).

Among the first entomologists to study fossil insects and their evolution was [[Samuel Hubbard Scudder]] (1837–1911), who worked on butterflies.<ref name="grimaldi">{{Cite book |author-link1=David Grimaldi (entomologist)|last1=Grimaldi|first1=D.|author-link2=Michael S. Engel|last2=Engel|first2=M. S.|title=Evolution of the Insects |year=2005 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-82149-0}}</ref> He published a study of the Florissant deposits of Colorado, including the exceptionally preserved ''[[Prodryas persephone]]''. [[Andreas V. Martynov]] (1879–1938) recognized the close relationship between Lepidoptera and Trichoptera in his studies on phylogeny.<ref name="grimaldi"/>

Major contributions in the 20th century included the creation of the monotrysia and ditrysia (based on female genital structure) by Borner in 1925 and 1939.<ref name="scoble"/> [[Willi Hennig]] (1913–1976) developed the [[cladistic]] methodology and applied it to insect phylogeny. Niels P. Kristensen, E. S. Nielsen and D. R. Davis studied the relationships among [[monotrysia]]n families and Kristensen worked more generally on insect [[phylogeny]] and higher Lepidoptera too.<ref name="scoble"/><ref name="grimaldi"/> While it is often found that DNA-based phylogenies differ from those based on [[morphology (biology)|morphology]], this has not been the case for the Lepidoptera; DNA phylogenies correspond to a large extent to morphology-based phylogenies.<ref name="grimaldi"/>

Many attempts have been made to group the superfamilies of the Lepidoptera into natural groups, most of which fail because one of the two groups is not [[monophyletic]]: Microlepidoptera and Macrolepidoptera, Heterocera and Rhopalocera, Jugatae and Frenatae, Monotrysia and Ditrysia.<ref name="scoble"/>

A 2024 genetic study found that the [[genome]]s of butterflies and moths have remained largely unchanged over the past 250 million years.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Charlotte J. Wright, Lewis Stevens, Alexander Mackintosh, Mara Lawniczak, Mark Blaxter|date=21 February 2024|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/378370076|title=Comparative genomics reveals the dynamics of chromosome evolution in Lepidoptera|journal=Nature Ecology & Evolution|volume=8 |issue=4 |pages=777–790 |doi=10.1038/s41559-024-02329-4|doi-access=free|pmid=38383850 |pmc=11009112|bibcode=2024NatEE...8..777W }}</ref>