Exoporia are a group of primitive Lepidoptera comprising the superfamilies
Mnesarchaeoidea and
Hepialoidea (Kristensen, 1999; Nielsen
et al., 2000). Exoporia is a natural group or
clade which is the
sister group of the lepidopteran
infraorder Heteroneura. They are characterised by the unique female reproductive system which has an external groove between the "ostium bursae" and the
ovipore by which the
sperm is transferred to the egg rather than having the mating and egg-laying parts of the abdomen with a common opening (
cloaca) as in other non-
ditrysian moths, or with separate openings linked internally by a "ductus seminalis" as in
Ditrysia (Nielsen
et al., 2000). See Kristensen (1999: 57) for other exoporian characteristics.