NOMEN: Protolepidoptera Packard 1895 [A.S. Packard. On the phylogeny of the Lepidoptera. – Zoologischer Anzeiger, 1895, 18 (465): 228-236]
ORIGINAL LISTED MEMBERSHIP (Packard 1895):
Micropterix/fg (= Eriocephalidae sensu
Chapman 1894 ) 
SENIOR CIRCUMSCRIPTIONAL SYNONYM:
= Microjugatae Comstock 1893
OBJECTIVE SYNONYM:
= Laciniata Packard 1895
JUNIOR CIRCUMSCRIPTIONAL SYNONYMS:
= Tricholepidoptera Crampton 1916
= Zeugloptera Chapman 1917
TYPIFIED NAME IN BASIC FORMAT: Micropterix/fg
TYPIFIED NAMES IN USE: Micropterix, Micropteriginae, Micropterigidae, Micropterigina
MODERN
STATUS: 
the valid, the
oldest name, belonging either to widely accepted plesiomorphon (Protolepidopterta
s.l.), or to a holophyletic taxon (Protolepidoptera s.str.).
Systematic position and classification of Protolepidoptera:
| Lepidoptera plesiomorphon Protolepidoptera s.l. Micropterix/fg (or Protolepidoptera s.str.) Agathiphaga/fg (or Aglossata) Heterobathmia/fg Glossolepidoptera plesiomorphon Palaeolepidoptera Neolepidoptera |
COMMENT. When the taxon Protolepidoptera was established, Agathiphaga and Heterobathmia were not discovered yet. So the name Protolepidoptera (and its circumscriptional synonyms Laciniata, Trcholepidoptera and Zeugloptera) can be used either in a wide sense – for a plesiomorphon which is characterized only by retention of the biting imaginal mouth apparatus, or in a narrow sense – for a smaller taxon, which is probably holophyletic and is characterized by some autapomorphies (Kristensen 1984 [Studies on the morphology and systematics of primitive Lepidoptera (Insecta) – Steenstrupia, 10: 141-191]).