Abstract
Approximately 300 species of Phaegopterinae (Arctiidae) occur in Peru, many of which were described by Walter Rothschild between 1909 and 1935 from Carabaya province (Puno Department). Only relatively recently has the moth fauna of other regions of the country been surveyed in detail, notably the expeditions undertaken by Thierry Porion in northern and central Peru in the 1980s. Hervé de Toulgoët examined the arctiid material from those surveys, which are deposited in the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (Paris). He described about 15 new species, but a number of new taxa remain among this material, two of which are described here. In addition to the Porion/Toulgoët work, recent collecting using mercury vapour light was conducted to augment available material.
References
Druce, H. (1906) Descriptions of some new species of Heterocera from tropical South America. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, (7), 18, 77–94.
Jacobson, N.L. & Weller, S.J. (2002) A cladistic study of the Arctiidae (Lepidoptera) by using characters of Immatures and Adults. Thomas Say Monograph Series, Entomological Society of America, 98 pp.
Klots, A.B. (1970) Lepidoptera. In: Tuxen, S.L., Taxonomist’s glossary of genitalia of insects. Copenhagen, Munksgaard, pp. 115–130.
Mitchel, A., Mitter, C. & Regier, J. (2006) Systematics and evolution of the cutworm moths (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae): evidence from two protein-coding nuclear genes. Systematics Entomology, 31,21–46.
Rothschild, L.W. (1916) Some new Arctiadae. Novitates Zoologicae, XXIII, 264–271.
Schnell, R. (1987) La flore et la végétation de l’Amérique tropicale, Tome II. Masson, Paris 448 pp.