Acanthoctesia or "archaic sun moths" is an infraorder of insects in the Lepidopteran order, containing a single superfamily Acanthopteroctetoidea and a single family Acanthopteroctetidae. They are currently considered the fifth group up on the comb of branching events in the extant lepidopteran phylogeny (Kristensen and Skalski, 1999: 10). They also represent the most basal lineage in the lepidopteran group Coelolepida (Wiegmann et al., 2002) (along with Lophocoronoidea and the massive group "Myoglossata") characterised in part by its scale morphology (Kristensen, 1999: 53-54). Moths in this superfamily are usually small (but one is 15 mm. in wingspan) and iridescent. Like other "homoneurous" Coelolepida and non-ditrysian Heteroneura, the ocelli are lost. There are variety of unique structural characteristics (see Kristensen, 1999: 53-54 for an overview). There are two described genera of these primitive moths. Catapterix was originally described within its own family (Sinev, 1988) but Acanthopteroctetes shares with it a number of specialised structural features including similar wing morphology (in A. unifascia) (Nielsen and Kristensen, 1996: 1255).

Acanthoctesia or "archaic sun moths" is an infraorder of insects in the Lepidopteran order, containing a single superfamily Acanthopteroctetoidea and a single family Acanthopteroctetidae. They are currently considered the fifth group up on the comb of branching events in the extant lepidopteran phylogeny (Kristensen and Skalski, 1999: 10). They also represent the most basal lineage in the lepidopteran group Coelolepida (Wiegmann et al., 2002) (along with Lophocoronoidea and the massive group "Myoglossata") characterised in part by its scale morphology (Kristensen, 1999: 53-54). Moths in this superfamily are usually small (but one is 15 mm. in wingspan) and iridescent. Like other "homoneurous" Coelolepida and non-ditrysian Heteroneura, the ocelli are lost. There are variety of unique structural characteristics (see Kristensen, 1999: 53-54 for an overview). There are two described genera of these primitive moths. Catapterix was originally described within its own family (Sinev, 1988) but Acanthopteroctetes shares with it a number of specialised structural features including similar wing morphology (in A. unifascia) (Nielsen and Kristensen, 1996: 1255).