Lepidopterology in Southern Africa: Past, present and future

Abstract

The lepidopteran fauna (moths, skippers and butterflies) of southern Africa (including all countries south of the Zambezi-Kunene rivers) comprises about 9,000 -species. This includes about 8,125 moth species in Southern Africa (Vári et al. 2002; Staude and Coetzer 2010, personal communication), with the largest families being the Noctuidae and the Geometridae [1,500 species in 221 genera (about 395 taxa having been added since 2002 (Staude and Coetzer 2010, personal communication))]. The ratio of described butterflies and skippers (about 875 species) to moths is about 1:9.3 for the subregion south of the Zambezi - Kunene rivers. Studies by Elliot Pinhey, Lajos Vári, Douglas Kroon, Martin Krüger, Arthur and Neville Duke, Hermann Staude, Jo Joannou and a few amateurs have added a considerable number of additional moth taxa in the last 30 years (for examples, see Joannou and Krüger 2009; Krüger 2002).