Paleolepidopterites
species of insect (fossil)
Paleolepidopterites is a collective genus of fossil moths which can not be placed in any defined family. The included species were formerly placed in the leaf-roller family Tortricidae and are known from fossils found in Russia and the United States (specifically Colorado). The collective genus contains three species: Paleolepidopterites destructus, Paleolepidopterites florissantanus, and Paleolepidopterites sadilenkoi, formerly placed within the genera Tortrix and Tortricites respectively. The three species were formally redescribed and moved to the new collective genus by Heikkilä et al. (2018).
Distribution
Two of the species were recovered from the late Eocene, Lutetian and Priabonian stages, Florissant Formation lake deposits near the small community of Florissant in Teller County, Colorado, United States. The holotype of P. destructus was recovered from fossiliferous outcrops on the ranch of George W. Wilson, while the P. florissantanus holotype came from outcrops at Station 14.
Species
P. destructus
P. destructus is known only from one fossil, the holotype, specimen "USNM 61998", which was first described as Tortrix? destructus. It is a single, mostly complete adult of undetermined sex, preserved as a compression fossil in fine grained shale.
The public source identifies “Paleolepidopterites” as species of insect (fossil). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Paleolepidopterites, species and insect.
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Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7827338. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2018.
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This entry incorporates text from “Paleolepidopterites” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.