Chapter 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE Lepidoptera being astonishingly beautiful insects had grabbed attention long back. The systematic study of moths traces back to 18th century when Carl Linnaeus described them in ‘Systema Nature’(Linnaeus, 1758). Since then, there has been extensive research carried out on moths. Catalogue of Lepidoptera given by Hübner, in 1786 was one of the earliest detailed records of moth. In 1829, Stephens published Catalogue of Lepidoptera of Palearctic region. Boisduval (1833, 1840) studied lepidopterous fauna of Madagascar and Europe. Further, Duponchel (1844) described classification of Lepidoptera of Europe. Elaborate studies by Swinhoe (1884, 1885, 1886, 1888) were done in British India. He studied lepidoptera from Kurachee in 1884, from Bombay (Mumbai) and Deccan in 1885, Central India (Mhow) in 1886, Karachi and its neighbourhood in 1888. In 1889, he published his observations on Heterocera from India (Swinhoe, 1889). He also enlisted lepidopterans from Khasia Hills (Swinhoe, 1893). In 1890, Smith gave his contributions of Noctuid moths from temperate North America. He also revised genus Agrotis. Tams in 1924 enlisted moths from Siam. Further, in 1930 he described new African moths from collection of British Museum. In 1935, he described Samoan insects. Wiltshire in 1936 described new noctuid species from zoological collection of Dr. Z Kasab in Mangolia. In 1939, Ellison & Wiltshire described seasonal distribution of Lepidopteran fauna from Lebanon. Wiltshire (1946a and 1946b) studied new species and two new races from Iran along with some middle east migrants their phenology and ecology. Further, in 1947 he studied lepidoptera from Middle East. Viette in (1948a and 1948b) described Pacific region lepidopterans and studied male genitalia morphology. In 1950 David. F. Hardwick described slide mount preparations of Lepidopteran genitalia. Kiriakoff in 1953 studied tympanic organs and described classification of Hyblaeidae. He noted absence of tympanum in genus Hyblaea. Atuhiro, Ogata, Okada, & Okagaki, in 1954 described male genitalia of Lepidoptera REVIEW OF LITERATURE 13 including specimens from Noctuidae. In 1958, Wiltshire studied Papilio machaon L in Bagdad. In 1960, Bayer described male genitalia of three genera Prodenia, Laphygma and Spodoptera from family Noctuidae. In 1969, Zangheri studied problems raised while using morphology of copulatory apparatus in systematics David. F. Hardwick in 1970 revised genera from Heliothidinae from North America. Further, in 1970 Klots gave insect genitalia’s taxonomic glossary focussing on Lepidopterans. Wiltshire in 1971 studied Jaspidiinae and Catocalinae from Sudan and Munich Zoological Museum. In 1972, he described quadrafine Noctuid moths from Iran and Afganistan. Klyuchko (1972a and 1972b) described subfamily Amphipyrinae (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) and family Noctuidae from Crimea. In 1973 David. F. Hardwick reported new species of Euxoa (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). Dufay, (1975a and 1975b) updated list of Noctuid moths from France and described Plusiinae moths respectively. Mikkola in 1976 reported adaptive significance of flight pattern of Xestia sp. (Lepidoptera:Noctuidae). Wiltshire (1976a and 1976b) described new species Noctuid moths from Africa and Africa with more reports from Sudan along with quadrafine noctuid moths with their biogeographical significance. In 1977 Wiltshire studied Spodoptera litura from Middle East. In 1977 D.F. Hardwick & Vaishampayan studied Helicoverpa armigera, a gram stem borer. In 1978, Edwards described genus Achaea Hubner from Australia. Further, Mikkola in 1980, he reported Noctuid species from Northern Europe. Wiltshire, Wittermer, and Buttiker in 1980 described Lepidopteran Insects from Saudi Arabia. In 1983, he described Scoliopteryx aksauna Sheljuzhko to be a discrete species. In 1983, Angulo & Jana-Saenz catalogued specimens from Catocalinae (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). Further, in same year Klyuchko and Smetanin reported Noctuid moths from “Trostyanets” reserve. Also, Lafontaine, Mikkola, and Kononenko revised genus Xestia sub. Schovenia Auriv (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) and described four new species and one new sub species. Wiltshire in 1986 studied lepidoptera of Saudi Arabia. In 1990, he catalogued macro Heterocera from Saudi Arabia. In 1992 he described sugarcane armyworm. Mikkola and Honey in 1993 restudied the 166 species described by Linnaeus. Poole, Mitter, & Huettel in same year performed morphometric and cladistic analysis and revised Heliothis virescens. REVIEW OF LITERATURE 14 Further, Ahmad et al., in 1994 described new species of Sesamia Walker (Ragi stem borer) from Pakistan. Hoppe, Rallies, & Wegner in 1994 reported Noctuid fauna from Western Mecklenburg. Syed & Kamaluddins in same year re-described Earias fabia Stoll (spotted ball worm) from Pakistan by studying its life cycle and genitalia. Yoshimatsu in 1995 studied genus Mythimma from North Borneo. Ahn, Kononenko, & Weon, in 1996 described new records of rare species from Korean Peninsula. Ganeshan & Rajabalee, in same year described Mythimma spp. a pest on sugarcane from Mauritius. Further, Olivares and Angulo studied tympanic organs for classifying Noctuid moths in 1996. In 1998 Legrain and Wiltshire reported macro Heterocera from UAE. In 2008, he explained that Noctuid moth’s internal genitalia shows lock and key mechanism. Literature survey revealed that there have been very few studies focussing on family Sphingidae. Approximately, 1400 species of hawkmoths are found in world. In comparison to other bigger families such as Noctuidae or Geometridae, the numbers of hawkmoths are very few. Probably, this is the reason for fewer number of studies on hawkmoths. Early studies done by Hampson in 1894 reports 121 Indian species of Sphingids. In 1937, Bell and Scott documented Sphingids from Indian sub-continent. After a gap of almost three decades Roonwal and Thapa in 1963 identified and enlisted Sphingidae from Peninsular India. In 2000, Ian J. Kitching and Cadiou gave definitive monograph of Sphingidae describing and check listing hawkmoths of world. Beck, Kitching, and Haxaire in 2007 described the latitudinal distribution of Sphingid moths and the effects of sampling biases on it. Sambath in 2011 described Sphingid fauna from Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary, Jharkhand. In 2012 Smetacek and Kitching described Sphingid moths from Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir (India). In 2013 Patil, Ghorepade, and Chandaragi studied Sphingids from Peninsular India. They also described the data deficiency due to piddling number of studies from this area. Hawkmoth diversity in Veerangana Durgavati Wildlife Sanctuary, Damoh, Madhya Pradesh, India was described by Chandra, Pandey, Bhandari, and Sambath in 2013. In 2017, Sondhi et al., described new species of Theretra Hubner: Theretra shendurneensis from Southern Western Ghats. REVIEW OF LITERATURE 15 In contrast to Sphingidae, Noctuidae has been studied extensively from long time throughout the world. Not only this family is a huge in number, but also, its classification has remained quite unstable. Few notable work on this family are mentioned ahead. Before 20th century, prominent work has been done by Fabricius in 1775, Cramer in 1775- 82. Dennis & Schiffermuller (1775) were first to recognise family Noctuidae as a separate group and they divided it into 21 groups. Further, Borkhausen in 1792 recognized Noctuidae as a division of group ‘Phalanea’, consisting of 26 families . He used wing pattern and resting position of adult insects to divide into various families. Hubner in 1805, divided Noctuid’s into three sections : Semigeometrae, Genuinae and Bombycoides . He ranked this group as a family by the name ‘Noctuae’. Boisduval in 1833 contributed publications on Noctuidae. He studied specimens from Madagascar and Europe. While, Guenee in 1841 gave detailed classification of Noctuids. He divided Noctuid moths into major divisions: Noctualites and Deltoids. Further, Walker in 1854 gave Catalogue “Lepidoptera: Heterocera” which included family Noctuidae. In 1856, Walker compiled Noctuids of British Museum. Moore in 1867 recorded 160 species of Noctuid moths from Bengal and 29 species belonging to 19 genera from Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Later, in 1869, Packard classified Noctuids using characters like length and narrowness of clypeus and antennae. He was the one who divided Noctuids into ‘Trifidae’ and ‘Quadrifidae’. Staudinger and Wocke in 1871 along with Staudinger and Rebel in 1901 published the catalogue “Lepidoptera of Palearctic Region”. They gave the name “Noctuidae”. While, in 1893 Swinhoe introduced classification of Noctuidae in which he divided the family into 29 sub-families. There was gap of few decades after which in 1960 Bayer M A studied genera Prodenia, Laphygma, and Spodoptera (Lepidopera: Noctuidae). In Gujrat, Shull and Nadkarney (1967 and 1961) reported moth species and 39.4% of them were Noctuids. Brown and Dewhurst in 1975 reported eight species from genus Spodoptera from Africa and Near East. In 1988, Kaur and Rose reported 54 species from Catocalinae and 34 species from Acronictinae from Punjab, Chandigarh and Delhi. Further, in 1985 and 1989, Holloway studied 389 moth species belonging to 86 genera, from Borneo. REVIEW OF LITERATURE 16 He described these species in volumes of “Moths of Borneo”. 55% of the reported species by him, were Noctuids. In 1995, moths from Silent Valley National Park (Western Ghats) were studied by Mathew and Rahamathulla. Yoshimatsu in 1995 described genus Mythimna from North