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1958
The Lepidopterists' News
55
REVIEWS
MICROLEPIDOPTERA VENEZOLANA. UBER DIE VON PATER CORNELIUS VOGL IN CARACAS UND MARACAY GEFANGENEN KLEINSCHMETTER-LINGE. PART I. By H. G. Amsel. Boletin de Entomologia Venezolana, vol. 10, no. 1-2: 336 pp., 1 portrait; 1 June 1956. PART II. Ibidem, vol. 10, no. 3-4-: 112 pp. 110 plates; 1 December 1957.
This is a very important paper promoting the study of the Microlepidoptera of South America. It is based chiefly upon the material collected by the indefatigable Father Cornelius Vogl, a portrait of whom is reproduced on a separate plate, in northern Venezuela (Caracas and Maracay vicinities), consisting of about 6,000 specimens of Microlepidoptera in the Munich Museum ("Zoologische Sammlung des Bay-erischen Staates"). In addition, the author examined some other, although much more limited material from Timotes, Merida, and Rancho Grande ,as well as moths from Venezuela in the Lederer Collection at the Vienna Museum.
The paper discusses 447 species of mothes belonging to the families Pyralididae (398 species), Pterophoridae (1), Tortricidae (4), Glyphipterygidas (1), Gelechiidse (2), Hyponomeutidae (5), CEcophoridae (7), Cryptolechiidas (19), and Tineidae (10). Among them 110 species and 54 genera are described as new, and five new tribes of the subfamily Pyraustinas (Pyralididae) are established. Part I of the paper presents a detailed discussion of the examined material. Part II contains 110 plates with 71 drawings of the wing venation and male genitalia, 371 photomicrographs of the genitalia (only three of them represent females, the remaining ones belong to the males), and 469 photographs of moths. The photographs are clear (except perhaps some on the plates 77 and 83, wdiich are too dark) and represent most of the recorded species. Especially useful are the genitalia photomicrographs, since most of the discussed species had not been examined before from this approach.
Before a special new revision is done, it is impossible to prove the correctness of the author's assumption that some of the newly established species and genera may appear synonymous with some ones described formerly. Taking into account the inadequate study of the Neotropical Microlepidoptera, it is believable that the number of synonyms should be rather small. As yet, the reviewer has noticed only that Amyelois, new genus, is synonymous with Paramyelois Heinrich (Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 207: p. 46). In a short list of corrigenda, in Part II the author replaces some of the generic names, proposed by him in Part I, by new ones. Although he does not mention the reason, for these substitutions, it is obviously because these names are already preoccupied.
Since the Pyralididae were represented in the recorded material much better than the remaining examined families, the author was able to make some interesting conclusions about the classification of this family. He represents the point of view that the Nymphulinae and the Scopariinae are not separable from the Pyraustinas is independent subfamilies, and that the Epipaschiinae are related to the Pyralidinae closer than are the Chrysauginae. The author is also of the opinion that the Pterophoridae have no close relationship to the Pyralididae and do not belong at all to the superfamily Pyralidoidea.
There is no doubt that the present paper by Dr. Amsel will be useful not only to the students of the Neotropical Microlepidoptera but also to systematists and zoo-geographers in general, since never before have the Microlepidoptera of any South American country been studied in such a proper and detailed manner as those of Venezuela in the presently reviewed paper.
Nicholas S. Obraztsov, 68 Glenlawn Avenue, Sea Cliff, Long Island, N. Y., U. S. A.