Microlepidoptera can be found in a broad variety of habitats worldwide. Many smaller moths are considered pests or parasites, causing damage to plants as well as fabrics and other manmade goods. Common varieties include the plume moth, cloth moth and the tineid moth.
Microlepidoptera is an artificial (i.e., unranked and not monophyletic) grouping of moth and butterfly families, commonly known as the 'smaller moths' (Micro, lepidoptera).
The vernacular usage of the term microlepidoptera divides the lepidoptera into more-primitive and less-primitive groups using microlepidoptera and macrolepidoptera respectively.
The microlepidoptera are for the most part endophagous (internal) plant feeders that tunnel, or "mine", leaves.
However, for many so-called "microlepidoptera" (primitive suborders, leaf miner and leaf roller moths, etc.), 10%-90% of the local species in some families are undescribed.
More of these include microlepidoptera than before probably because of considerable progress in the descriptive taxonomy of most families during the past 35 years (e.g., Covell 1984).
The species discovery rate was slow because we could not sample the whole reserve during each visit, and most of the effort followed a consummate fire in the fourth year of our 12-year inventory; many species were first collected in year 9 or 10.
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