Gelechioidea is a large, diverse superfamily of microlepidoptera that is problematical to characterize cohesively in terms of morphology, behavior and ecology due to its species richness. Even within families, it is difficult to make species diagnoses and the main working taxonomic unit for Gelechioidea seems to be the subfamily level, although many researchers use the taxonomy of family and subfamily interchangeably. Only recently have there been attempts at comprehensive treatments that aim to address world fauna of the entire superfamily rather than focusing on a few local families. This talk addresses character state delineation and terminology for many taxa in some cases establishing equivalence across authors for the first time.