Reexamination of Rebel’s fossil Yponomeutidae reveals misidentifications

Yponomeutidae, as defined in Dugdale et al. 1998, include six subfamilies: Yponomeutinae, Attevinae, Saridoscelinae, Argyresthiinae, Praydinae and Scythropiinae. Yponomeutidae are a key group for understanding evolutionary trends in Lepidoptera, including the transition from internal to external feeding on higher angiosperms (Powell et al., 1998). Our understanding of yponomeutid ecolution would be improved be a well-documented fossil record, nut such a record is lacking. Ten fossil specimens have been assigned to Yponomeutidae at least once. Of these, seven are Baltic amber inclusions described by Rebel (1934, 1935/36). and placed to three yponomeutid subfamiles. Kozlov (1988) first pointed out that Rebel’s assignment were not based on a modern concept of Yponomeutidae, but offered only provisional suggestions about alternative taxonomic positions for Rebel’s yponomeutid fossils. In this study, four fossils described as yponomeutids by Rebel, namely Argyresthites succinella, Epinomeuta truncatipenella, “Epinomeuta” inversella, and “Epinomeuta” minorella, are re-examined. Our results confrim that Rebel’s identifications conflict from the modern definition of Yponomeutidae. Revised systematic positions for these fossils will be discussed.