New records of six moth (Lepidoptera: Erebidae, Lasiocampidae) species in south African countries, with comments on their distribution

Abstract

Southern Africa hosts a high diversity of ecosystems and habitats with tremendous diversity of Lepidoptera. Although it belongs among most studied parts of the Afrotropics, the knowledge on diversity and distribution of south African moth fauna remains insufficient. To partly fill this gap, we surveyed macromoths by automatic light traps in seven localities in three relatively less sampled south African countries.We reported 14 species and one genus (Remigioides) of moths which have not yet been recorded in Namibia, Botswana, or Zimbabwe. Although none of these records broadened the known distribution of individual species to a new biogeographic region, they still fill important gaps in their distribution. Especially, the known distributional ranges of two species have been substantially extended, although still within the same biogeographic regions: ca. 800 km southwards for Remigioides remigina (Mabille, 1884), and ca. 600 km westwards for Haplopacha cinerea Aurivillius, 1905.