Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 5613 No. 3: 28 Mar. 2025
Type: Article
Published: 2025-03-28
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5613.3.6
Page range: 537-554
Abstract views: 124
PDF downloaded: 11

Four new species of Aenetus Herrich-Schäffer (Lepidoptera: Hepialidae) from eastern Indonesia, with comment on distributional correlation with Gondwana tectonics

Research Associate; OpenScienceLab NZ; Ngaio; New Zealand
Research Associate; McGuire Center for Lepidoptera & Biodiversity; Gainesville; FL 32611; USA; Caixa postal 1206; 84.145-000 Carambeí; Paraná; Brazil
Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Entomology I department; Senckenberganlage 25; 60325 Frankfurt am Main; Germany
Lier; Belgium
Altai State University; pr. Lenina 61; RUS-656049 Barnaul; Russia; Tomsk State University; Laboratory of Biodiversity and Ecology; Lenina pr. RUS-656050 Tomsk; Russia; Western Caspian University; Istiglaliyat Street 31; Bakul; Azerbaijan
6345 Franklin Hill Road; East Stroudsburg; Pennsylvania; 18301; USA
Lepidoptera Banda Sea Buru Endoclita Flores Laurasia Lomblem taxonomy tectonic correlation Timor Sulawesi Sumba South East Asia tectonics vicariance Yamdena

Abstract

Four new Aenetus species and geographic records are presented for islands of eastern Indonesia: A. porlovi sp. nov. from Lomblen (= Palu Lembata) Island in the Solor Archipelago, A. degroofi sp. nov. from Pulau Yamdena in the Tanimbar Archipelago, A. negasii sp. nov. from Palau Sumba, and A. verdiceae sp. nov. from Palau Selayar on the southern coast of Sulawesi. New geographic records are made for undetermined specimens from the the islands of Flores, Timor, and Buru. These records further extend the known distributional limit of Aenetus in South East Asia in a region comprising Gondwana terranes. The Selayar and Sumba islands localities are geologically part of, or derived from, ‘continental’ Laurasia, but may originally comprise fragments of Gondwana that accreted in Cretaceous time. A tectonic correlation would indicate the possibility that the distribution of Aenetus in Southeast Asia was mediated either as fragments of Gondwana accreting to Asia in the Cretaceous, or more recently by the Sula Spur of northeastern Gondwana merging with Southeast Asia about 25 Ma. The presence of A. sumatraensis Grehan, Witt & Ignatev in northern Sumatra may have resulted from tectonic accretion such as the Woyla island arc, or represents later range expansion following convergence of the Sula Spur. Future biotic surveys for Aenetus in this region, along with determination of its allopatric sister group, will be essential for resolving the biogeographic boundaries of this genus, particularly with respect to Java, Sumatra, and Sulawesi.

 

References

  1. Beaver, E.P. (2019a) A new species of Aenetus Herrich-Schaffer (Lepidoptera: Hepialidae) from New Guinea. Australian Entomologist, 46, 47–55.
  2. Beaver, E.P. (2019b) A new species of Aenetus Herrich-Schäffer (Lepidoptera: Hepialidae) from Tasmania, with notes on the splendens group of species in South Australia. Australian Entomologist, 46, 125–138.
  3. Beaver, E.P. & Moore, M.D. (2020) Four new species of Splendid Ghost Moths (Lepidoptera: Hepialidae: Aenetus) from Australia and Papua New Guinea. In: Beaver, E.P., Moore, M.D., Grehan, J.R., Velasco-Castrillón, A. & Stevens, M.I. (Eds.), Zootaxa, 4809 (3), 449–474. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4809.3.2
  4. Boudinot, J. (1991) Biologie d'Aenetus cohici Viette (Lepidoptera: Hepialidae). Mémoires du Muséum National d'histoire Naturelle, Series A, 149, 167–175.
  5. Dugdale, J.S. (1994) Hepialidae (Insecta: Lepidoptera). Fauna of New Zealand, 30, 1–164.
  6. Grehan, J.R. (2012) Morphological evidence for phylogenetic relationships within the Hepialidae (Lepidoptera: Exoporia). Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, 42, 33–62.
  7. Grehan, J.R. (2022) Biogeography of Phassus ghost moths and the Sonora-Mojave megashear of Mexico. News of the Lepidopterists' Society, 64 (131), 134–137.
  8. Grehan, J.R. & Knyazev, S. (2019) Potential influence of Mesozoic and Cenozoic tectonics on theevolution of European Hepialidae (Lepidoptera). Biogeographia, 34, 17–32. https://doi.org/10.21426/B634143499
  9. Grehan, J.R. & Mielke, C.G.C. (2018) Evolutionary biogeography and tectonic history of the ghost moth families Hepialidae, Mnesarchaeidae, and Palaeosetidae in the Southwest Pacific (Lepidoptera: Exoporia). Zootaxa, 4415 (2), 243–275. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4415.2.2
  10. Grehan, J.R. & Mielke, C.G.C. (2019) Evidence for ghost moths and relatives as fragments of a Gondwana biota (Lepidoptera: Exoporia). The Weta, 53, 24–34.
  11. Grehan, J.R. & Mielke, C.G.C. (2020a) Taxonomic revision and biogeography of Phassodes Bethune-Baker, 1905 (Lepidoptera: Hepialidae), ghost moth descendants of a subduction zone weed in the South-West Pacific. Bishop Museum Occasional Papers, 136, 1–37.
  12. Grehan, J.R. & Mielke, C.G.C. (2020b) How to survive along a tectonic subduction zone: the western Pacific islands ghost moth Phassodes Bethune-Baker, 1905 (Lepidoptera: Hepialidae). News of the Lepidopterists' Society, 62, 173–176.
  13. Grehan, J.R., Mielke, C.G.C., Garzon-Orduña, I.J., Cruz, A. & Velazco, C. (2022). New species of Phassus Walker ghost moth from northeastern Mexico and notes on its biogeographic significance (Lepidoptera: Hepialidae). ZooNova, 19, 1–18.
  14. Grehan, J.R., Mielke, C.G.C., Turner, J.R.G & Nielsen, J.E. (2023) A revised world catalogue of ghost moths (Lepidoptera: Hepialidae) with taxonomic and biological annotations. ZooNova, 28, 1–337.
  15. Grehan, J.R. & Rawlins J.E. (2003) Larval description of a New World ghost moth, Phassus sp., and the evolutionary biogeography of wood-boring Hepialidae (Lepidoptera: Exoporia: Hepialoidea). Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington, 105, 733–755.
  16. Grehan, J.R., Witt, T.J. & Ignatev, N. (2018) New Species of Aenetus from Sumatra, Indonesia (Lepidoptera: Hepialidae) and a 5,000 km biogeographic disjunction. Entomofauna, 39, 849–862.
  17. Hall, R. (2011) Australia-SE Asia collision: plate tectonics and crustal flow. Geological Society of London Special Publications, 355, 75–109. https://doi.org/10.1144/SP355.5
  18. Hall, R. (2012) Late Jurassic–Cenozoic reconstructions of the Indonesian region and the Indian Ocean. Tectonophysics, 570–571, 1–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tecto.2012.04.021
  19. Heads, M. (2014) Biogeography of Australasia: A molecular analysis. Cambridge University Press, New York, New York, 507 pp. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139644464
  20. Heads, M. (2017) Ericaceae in Malesia: vicariance biogeography, terrane tectonics and ecology. Telopia, 10, 311–449. https://doi.org/10.7751/telopea20035621
  21. Heads, M. (2018) Metapopulation vicariance in the Pacific genus Coprosma (Rubiaceae) and its Gondwanan relatives. Australian Systematic Botany, 30, 422–438. https://doi.org/10.1071/SB16047
  22. Mielke, C.G.C. & Casagrande, M.M. (2013) A new Cibyra Walker, 1856 from southern Brazil with taxonomic notes (first note) (Lepidoptera, Hepialidae). Nachrichten des Entomologischen Vereins Apollo, 34, 73–86.
  23. Nielsen, E.S. & Kristensen, N.P. (1989) Primitive ghost moths. Morphology and taxonomy of the Australian genus Fraus Walker (Lepidoptera: Hepialidae s. lat.). Monographs on Australian Lepidoptera, 1, 1–206. https://doi.org/10.1071/9780643105096
  24. Pagenstecher, A. (1888) Beiträge zur Lepidopterenfauna des malayinschen Archipels. v. Verzeichniss der Schmetterlinge von Amboina. Jahrbücher des Nassauischen vereins für Naturkunde, 41, 87–217.
  25. Roepke, W. (1935) Herinneringen van een entomoloog aan het eil Eiland Batjan. Tropische Natuur, 24, 96–105.
  26. Rutherford, E., Berke, K. & Lytwyn, J. (2020) Tectonic history of Sumba Island, Indonesia, since the Late Cretaceous and its rapid escape into the forearc in the Miocene. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, 19, 453–479. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1367-9120(00)00032-8
  27. Salesne, T. (2010) À la recherche de l'hépiale calédonienne. Insectes, 159, 9–13.
  28. Scott, A.W. (1869) On the genus Charagia of Walker. Transactions of the Entomological Society of New South Wales, 2, 25–35.
  29. Simonsen, T.J. (2018) Splendid ghost moths and their allies: A revision of Australian Abantiades, Oncopera, Aenetus and Zelotypia. Monographs of Australian Lepidoptera, 12, 1–312. https://doi.org/10.1071/9781486307487
  30. Zahirovic, S., Seton, M. & Müller, R.D. (2014) The Cretaceous and Cenozoic tectonic evolution of Southeast Asia. Solid Earth, 5, 227–273. https://doi.org/10.5194/se-5-227-2014

How to Cite

Grehan, J.R., Mielke, C.G., Ignatev, N., Groof, B.D., Yakovlev, R. & Klingler, M.A. (2025) Four new species of Aenetus Herrich-Schäffer (Lepidoptera: Hepialidae) from eastern Indonesia, with comment on distributional correlation with Gondwana tectonics. Zootaxa, 5613 (3), 537–554. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5613.3.6