Subfamily Lymantriinae Hampson, [1893]

lymantriidae

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Museums

Regional Maps

• Lymantriinae Hampson, G.F. 1893. Moths I. In, Blandford, W.T. (ed.). The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. London : Taylor & Francis Vol. 1 xxiii+527 pp.

  Type genus:

   Lymantria Hübner, (1819).
• Lymantriidae Hampson, [1893].

• Holloway, J.D. 2011. The Moths of Borneo. Phaudidae, Himantopteridae, Zygaenidae. Complete checklist, checklist notes, historical appendix, index. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia : Southdene Sdn. Bhd. Vol. Part 2 pp.1-548. [366]

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.

General References

Bryk, F. 1934. Lymantriidae. Lepidopterorum Catalogus 62: 1-441

Edwards, E.D. 1996. Lymantriidae. pp. 275-277 in Nielsen, E.S., Edwards, E.D. & Rangsi, T.V. (eds). Checklist of the Lepidoptera of Australia. Monographs on Australian Lepidoptera. Collingwood : CSIRO Publishing Vol. 4 xiv 529 pp. & CD-ROM.

Riotte, J.C.E. 1979. Australian and Papuan tussock moths of the Orgyia complex (Lepidoptera: Lymantriidae). Pacific Insects 20: 293-311

Southcott, R. 1987. Moths and butterflies. pp. 243-257 in Covacevich, J., Davie, P. & Pearn, J. (eds). Toxic Plants and Animals. A Guide for Australia. Brisbane : Queensland Museum 504 pp.

Southcott, R.V. 1978. Australian Harmful Arachnids and Their Allies. Mitcham, South Australia : R. V. Southcott 36 pp. (medical aspects)

Strand, E. 1929. Lymantriidae. pp. 291-387, pls 36, 38-46, 56-58 in Seitz, A. (ed.). [1914-1929]. The Macrolepidoptera of the World. 10. Bombyces and Sphinges of the Indo-Australian Region. 2 vols. Stuttgart : Alfred Kernen Verlag.

Turner, A.J. 1921. Revision of Australian Lepidoptera — Liparidae. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 45 [1920]: 474-499 [Date published 7 March 1921]

Zahiri, R., Kitching, I.J., Lafontaine, J.D., Mutanen, M., Kaila, L., Holloway, J.D. & Wahlberg, N. 2011. A new molecular phylogeny offers hope for a stable family level classification of the Noctuoidea (Lepidoptera). Zoologica Scripta 40: 158-173

History of changes