Thirteen moth species (Lepidoptera, Erebidae, Noctuidae) newly recorded in South Africa, with comments on their distribution

Abstract

Thanks to the high diversity of ecosystems and habitats, South Africa harbours tremendous diversity of insects. The Kruger National Park, due to its position close to the border between two biogeographic regions and high heterogeneity of environmental conditions, represents an insufficiently studied hotspot of lepidopteran diversity. During our ecological research in the Kruger National Park, we collected abundant moth material, including several interesting faunistic records reported in this study.We reported 13 species of moths which had not yet been recorded in South Africa. In many cases, our records represented an important extension of the species’ known distribution, including two species (Ozarba gaedei and O. persinua) whose distribution ranges extended into the Zambezian biogeographic region. Such findings confirmed the poor regional knowledge of lepidopteran diversity.

Keywords

• Afrotropics
• faunistic report
• Heterocera
• Kruger