 It is the type species of the genus "Pyralis", and by extension of its entire tribe (Pyralini), subfamily (Pyralinae) and family.Its synanthropic habits were noted even by 18th- and 19th-century naturalists, who described it using terms like "domesticalis" ("of home and hearth"), "fraterna" ("as close as a brother"), or the currently-valid "farinalis" ("of the flour").At rest, adult moths (imagines) typically hold the tip of their abdomen at 90° to their body.