See text Macrolepidoptera is a group within the insect order Lepidoptera.

Traditionally used for the larger butterflies and moths as opposed to the "microlepidoptera", this group is artificial.

The two superfamilies Geometroidea and Noctuoidea account for roughly one-quarter of all known Lepidoptera.

More recent taxonomic treatments usually include all butterflies in an expanded Papilionoidea.

[4][5] Subsequent molecular studies have failed to recover the macrolepidoptera as a monophyletic group, but have found a well supported clade of moths that excludes the butterflies and some other moth superfamilies.