Caterpillars and cases of Tineidae (Clothes Moths, Lepidoptera) from Baltic amber (Eocene)

A first analysis of caterpillars of Tineidae and their cases preserved in Eocene Baltic Amber is presented, and an ecological interpretation based on comparisons with extant Tineidae is given. Several informative syninclusions (e.g., mammal hairs, Psocoptera) of two of the cases suggest that the caterpillars of some Tineidae in the Baltic Amber forest occupied comparable ecological niches as their synanthropic extant relatives, which live on keratin in dry habitats. Thus, the amber fossils appear to represent the oldest direct fossil evidence of keratinophagy in Lepidoptera.