ISSN 0968-0454 Bulletin of The Natural History Museum Entomology Series ^M THE NATURAL HISTORY ."•SSEB MUSEUM •• VOLUME 69 NUMBER 1 29 JUNE 2000 The Bulletin of The Natural History Museum (formerly: Bulletin oftheBritish Museum (Natural History)), instituted in 1949, is issued in four scientific series, Botany, Entomology, Geology (incorporating Mineralogy) andZoology. TheEntomology Series is produced under theeditorship of the Keeper of Entomology: R.I.Vane-Wright Editor of Bulletin: Gaden S. Robinson Papers in theBulletin are primarily the results ofresearch carried outon theunique and ever-growing collections of theMuseum, both bythescientific staffandby specialists from elsewhere who make use oftheMuseum's resources. Many of thepapers are works of reference thatwillremain indispensable foryears to come. All papers submittedfor publicationare subjectedto external peer reviewbefore acceptance. 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(Ent.) © The Natural History Museum, 2000 Entomology Series ISSN 0968-0454 Vol. 69, No. 1, pp. 1-114 The Natural History Museum Cromwell Road London SW7 5BD Issued 29 June 2000 Typeset byAnnBuchan (Typesetters), Middlesex Printed in GreatBritain byHenry LingLtd,at theDorset Press, Dorchester, Dorset Bull. nat. Hist. Mus. Lond. (Ent.) 69(1): 3-114 Issued 29 June 2000 A review ofthe Central and South American Nepticulidae (Lepidoptera) with special reference to Belize RIMANTAS PUPLESIS DepartmentofZoology, Vilnius Pedagogical University, Studentu str., Vilnius 2034 LT, Lithuania GADEN S.ROBINSON DepartmentofEntomology, TheNatural HistoryMuseum, CromwellRoad, London SW75BD.UK CONTENTS Synopsis 3 Introduction 4 Material and methods 8 Abbreviations of institutions 8 Acknowledgements 9 Morphology and taxonomic composition of the family 9 Adult morphology 9 Biology 12 Taxonomic composition 14 Synopsis of genera 15 Checklist of Neotropical species 17 Species review 18 Enteucha 18 Manoneura 22 Stigmella 23 Ectoedemia 41 Fomoria 43 Acalyptris 45 Glaucolepis 56 References 57 Index 59 SYNOPSIS. Fifty-eightspecies of Nepticulidae are describedor redescribedfrom Central and South America; 16 Neotropical species are redescribed, 33 are described as new and 4 are describedbutnotnamedpendingtheavailability ofadditional material; fivespeciesfromFlorida, considered to be of Neotropical affinity, are listed together withcitations of descriptions and illustrations. Four new combinations are established; one new species-group is defined in Stigmella. Thegeneric status ofManoneura Davis isrestored. Almost allprimary typeshavebeen examined andillustrated forthefirst timeexcept forsomepredominantly non-tropical species. The species revised fallintoseven genera: Enteucha (6species), Manoneura (2species), Stigmella (23 species), Ectoedemia (5species), Fomoria (4species), Acalyptris (16species) andGlaucolepis (2 species). Adults of all species treated (except for a few from Florida) are illustrated, with line drawingsof genitaliaand distributionmaps. © The Natural History Museum, 2000 R. PUPLESIS AND G.S. ROBINSON for isolated descriptions of a few new species from INTRODUCTION Puerto Rico (Forbes & Leonard, 1930) and Argentina (Meyrick, 1931; Bourquin, 1962) and a few relatively Committed effort to inventory the world's biota has recent discoveries in Florida (Davis, 1978; Wilkinson, never been more necessary than now. Growing inter 1981) of species with Neotropical affinities (Fig. 1). national concern over the biodiversity crisis together Stigmella plumosetaeella was described by Newton & with the provisions of the 1992 Rio Convention on Wilkinson (1982) from Arizona, USA, and here it is Biological Diversity have imparted a new urgency to additionally recorded from south-western Mexico. the need for taxonomic revisions ofdiverse groups and However, until now only 21 species have been recorded the provision of identification manuals, particularly from Central and South America and the tropical states for tropical areas. Hence this publication. ofthe USA. Thirteen ofthese have been listed by Davis Nepticulidae are a very specialized, isolated family (1984) in the Neotropical checklist, but most have of primitive monotrysian Microlepidoptera with a never been illustrated. worldwide distribution. The minute size ofthe adults, In total fifty-eight species of Nepticulidae from the concealed mining life-style ofthe larvae (predomi Central and South America are treated in the present nantly in leaves), and the difficulty ofrearing imagines revision. We also include five species currently known goes some way towards explaining why these moths from southern Florida as potential members of the are still poorly studied in many regions. Only the Neotropical fauna; the practicality ofthis is confirmed northern European nepticulid fauna can be considered by recent discovery of 'Florida species' in Belize and to have been exhaustively studied (Johansson et ai, Dominica (e.g.,Manoneura basidactyla).Another eight 1990). Studies in other regions of the world fall some species with a distribution range from northern Florida way short of reflecting the actual diversity of the group into the northern states of the USA have not been although coverage compares well with that of other incorporated into our revision as their hostplant data groups ofMicrolepidoptera. The most exhaustive revi and distribution suggests they are typical members of sions or detailed taxonomic papers have been published a temperate fauna; they are listed at the end of the for the western Palaearctic (Johansson, 1971; checklist below. The species revised here fall into Nieukerken, 1983,1985a, 1985b, 1986a; Johansson et seven genera: Enteucha Meyrick (6 species), al, 1990; Nieukerken & Puplesis, 1991 etc.), Central Manoneura Davis (2 species), Stigmella Schrank (23 and Eastern Palaearctic, including Far-eastern Russia species), Ectoedemia Busck (5 species), Fomoria and Japan (Kemperman & Wilkinson, 1985; Puplesis, Beirne (4 species), Acalyptris Meyrick (16 species) 1994; Puplesis &Diskus, 1995,1996a, 1996b, 1996c; and Glaucolepis Braun (2 species). Only Manoneura Puplesis et al, 1996, 1997), South Africa (Scoble, is known exclusively from the Neotropics. 1978a, 1978b, 1980a, 1980b, and, outstandingly sig This revision is the first attempt to demonstrate to nificant, 1983), Nearctic (Davis, 1978; Wilkinson, the scientific community an example of the diversity of 1979,1981; Wilkinson & Scoble, 1979; Wilkinson & Neotropical nepticulids and to prepare the ground for Newton, 1981; Newton & Wilkinson, 1982), New future investigations of this fauna. Substantial uniden Zealand (Donner & Wilkinson, 1989), and recently for tified material was available to us, collected during the Australia (Hoare et al, 1997; Hoare, 2000). Long last thirty years and deposited mainly in the University neglected, the diverse Australian fauna is being further of Copenhagen and in the United States National Mu studied by Robert Hoare; the Chinese and Japanese seum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution), fauna is being revised by Erik van Nieukerken (NNM); togetherwith material that we have collected recently a revision ofthe CentralAsiatic nepticulids is currently in Belize. in preparation by R. Puplesis and A. DiSkus(VPU). The Belize collecting trip, undertaken inApril 1998 The Neotropical Region, while vast and with a by the first author with the assistance of Simon Hill hugely diverse biota, iscomparatively unexplored with (University of Westminster, UK), has resulted in the respect to collection and study of Nepticulidae. The description of a very interesting and rich rainforest first two species recorded from the region, Stigmella fauna of nepticulids and other primitive johannis and Fomoriamolybditis, were described by Microlepidoptera. The nepticulid species found in Zeller (1877) (as Nepticula) from Colombian material Belize comprise exactly half of all species treated in collected by Johann and Nolcken in 1871. Much later, the present revision. Belize has given us a baseline five further species were reported from Peru and two from which to estimate the possible extent of from Guyana by Meyrick (1915); however, one of the Neotropicalnepticuloid diversity,allowed us to com Guyanese species {Enteucha cyanochlora)was placed paretheoverlapof the Belizecollectionwith previous in the Lyonetiidae and only recognized as nepticulid samples,and to supplementthe existing BMNHhold some 70 years later (Davis, 1984; 1985). During the ings (otherwise almost entirely aged type material). last seven to eight decades there have been practically Nearly one half of the country visited lies in dense no investigations of Neotropical Nepticulidae, except protected forests, some still unexplored. Except for a 50 Legend USA Neotropical •D <D 40 n o w (D •a 30 W <D "5 a> Q. CO 20 0 E 10 3 pre-1901 1901-1920 1921-1940 1941-1960 1961-1980 1981-2000