Australian Biological Resources Study

Australian Faunal Directory

lymantriidae

lymantriidae

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Subfamily Lymantriinae Hampson, [1893]


Compiler and date details

January 2014 - ABRS

Introduction

[After Edwards 1996: 275]
The world fauna of Lymantriidae was listed in Lepidopterorum Catalogus by Bryk (1934) and the Indoaustralian fauna in Seitz's Macrolepidoptera of the World Vol. 10 by Strand (1914-1929). The Australian fauna was revised by Turner (1921) and few Australian species have been described since. Riotte (1979) reviewed Australian species in Orgyia Ochsenheimer and Teia Walker. There are many undescribed Australian species and much revisionary work is needed on the Australian fauna.

Australia has a few small endemic genera but most are widespread genera or shared with New Guinea. Nearly all the described Australian species are endemic but many species in northern Queensland either occur in New Guinea or have sibling species in New Guinea.

The larvae feed on a very wide range of foodplants and are well known for the hair tufts which give some a toothbrush appearance. Larvae of many species cause severe urtication of the human skin and Southcott (1978, 1987) deals with the medical aspects of these. In particular Euproctis edwardsii (Newman) and Leptocneria reducta (Walker) frequently cause problems as do several tropical species including Euproctis stenomorpha Turner. Teia anartiodes Walker can cause minor damage to a wide range of trees and shrubs.

Higher classification within the Noctuoidea has been examined in detail in recent papers such as Zahiri et al. (2010, 2011) (see discussion in Zahiri, 2010). It is clear that the arrangement used by Edwards (1996) does not reflect the currently accepted classification. However, a significant proportion of Australian genera have not been included in these recent analyses, so it is not possible to place them into the currently accepted classification with confidence. Until further studies on Australian genera have clarified this situation the arrangement used by Edwards (1996) is retained, with the exception that Teia is synonymised with Orgyia Ochsenheimer.

 

History of changes

Note that this list may be incomplete for dates prior to September 2013.
Published As part of group Action Date Action Type Compiler(s)
27-Jul-2017 NOCTUOIDEA 13-Jul-2017 MODIFIED Karin Koch
15-Jan-2014 LYMANTRIIDAE 01-Dec-2015 MODIFIED
05-Nov-2012 MODIFIED