: Certain members of the unrelated snout moths (Pyralidae) are also known as "ermine moths." Spilosoma lubricipeda is an unrelated moth with the common name "white ermine."
An ermine moth is any moth in the family Yponomeutidae, which has several hundred species, most of them in the tropics. The larvae tend to form communal webs, and some are minor pests in agriculture, forestry, and horticulture. Adult moths are minor pollinators.
Taxonomy
The traditional morphology based taxonomy of Kyrki (1990) divided Yponomeutidae into six subfamilies, but this circumscription is not found to be monophyletic in molecular phylogenetic analyses. van Nieukerken et al (2011) split off Praydidae, Attevidae and Argyresthiidae as separate families, and Sohn (2013) elevated Scythropiinae to family to contain Scythropia.
Adult ermine moths are mostly nocturnal.
The larvae are leaf-webbers, leaf skeletonizers, leafminers or needleminers and are found on a variety of host plants. Some cause economic damage to crops and trees.