Interesting article comparing African moth biodiversity with that in N America.

https://naturalhistorymuseum.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/2015/10/African-Moths-Project.pdf

Posted on 17 de junho de 2021, 10:45 AM by botswanabugs botswanabugs

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Abstract --
We analyzed 21,375 African and 11,799 North American moth species from AfroMoths and Discover Life. For North, West, Central, East and Southern African regions and North America north of Mexico, we compared species totals for selected higher taxa and for when taxonomists published species descriptions.

Currently Africa has 1.8 times as many described moths as North America north of Mexico,
but this number underestimates the relative richness of African moth diversity.

Trends in the annual rate of species descriptions suggest that there are many yet undescribed African moths relative to the United States and Canada. For the “macro moths” (Geometroidea, Drepanoidea, Noctuoidea, Bombycoidea, Lasiocampidae) there are 2.3 times as many described African species.
For “other moths”, there are only 1.4 times as many, suggesting that for much of Africa, the relative exception being South Africa, a higher proportion of small species may remain yet undescribed.
Notably, there are currently more described species in Tortricidae, Gelechioidea, Yponomeutoidea and Gracillarioidea for North America than Africa.
Taxonomists are still describing many new species within charismatic groups of large moths, namely the Arctiinae, Saturniidae and Sphingidae, in East and Central Africa.

We frame this article in the context of the African Moth Inventory, a new initiative of Discover Life, which we invite Southern Lepidopterists’ Society members to join.

STATUS OF MOTH DIVERSITY AND TAXONOMY: A COMPARISON BETWEEN AFRICA AND NORTH AMERICA NORTH OF MEXICO
J PICKERING, D MADAMBA, T STAPLES AND R WALCOTT 2016 SOUTHERN LEPIDOPTERISTS’ NEWS VOLUME 38 NO.3 (2016), PG. 241

Publicado por tonyrebelo cerca de 1 ano antes

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