Family names followed by asterisks are presumed to have no representatives in Eastern North America (7 families, 9 species). When the butterflies/skippers are removed from the count there remain just over 11,000 species of moths (1983 data), a number which may have grown close to 11,400 today. It would be no great surprise for the North American species total to eventually be found to be between 13,000-15,000 with the greatest increase in the microlepidoptera. Perhaps 60-70% of these will be found in the eastern half of the continent.