Home :: Projects :: Moths of Vietnam

   

"Moths of Vietnam with special reference to Mt. Fan-si-pan"


Editor: Thomas J. Witt


Faunistic data on insects of Vietnam was quite poor by the end of the last century. It was based primarily on the materials, which have been collected in the 20-es by request of the Paris insect-trader Eugène LE MOULT by Albert LEMÉE and other collectors in northern (Cha-pa [=Sapa]; mountain Fan-si-pan region) and southern ("Cochin-China") areas of the country. These materials, studied und published by DE JOANNIS (1929) und LEMEE & TAMS (1950), have been finally included in "The Natural History Museum (BMNH), London" and "Musée National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris". Less than 10% of species, known to the date, are listed there.

Starting from the political opening of Vietnam, in 1992-1996, SCHINTLMEISTER organized a series of expeditions to the northern regions of the country; insects have been light-trapped in Tam Dao, Cuc-Phuong, Bao-Loc, Tuan-giao, Mai-chau, Kim Boi, Farin-Pass and Ben En National Park. Of special importance was a light trapping in all the seasons in different places of undisturbed primeval forest of Fan-si-pan mountans in altitudes 1600-2800 m.



SCHINTLMEISTER invited to the project the Russian colleague Viktor SINIAEV, Moscow, who involved local people in the collecting activity. He finally taught a crew, which has kept then a row of light traps, on the course of several years bringing quantitative and, after some initial difficulties, qualitative material.

This resulted in:
15.000 "Microlepidoptera (and Pyralidae)" residing at the Museum for Natural History and Prehistory in Dessau and in Natural History Museum of Humboldt University (Berlin);
80.000 Bombyces and Sphinges (sensu SEITZ) in WITT Museum, Munich;
10.000 Notodontidae in coll. SCHINTLMEISTER, Dresden;
115.000 Noctuidae at the Natural History Museum, Vienna;
26.000 Geometridae at Zoological Research Institute and Museum of Alexander KÖENIG, Bonn.

This material is available for study by experts. Results by families are irregularly published in Supplementary series to the journal ENTOMOFAUNA.

Among "silk moths", only study results on Notodontidae (A. SCHINTLMEISTER) and Camptolomidae, Mirinidae and Lasiocampidae (V.V. ZOLOTUHIN & T.J. WITT) have been published so far. On the fauna of Vietnam there were only basic works by DE JOANNIS (1922-1930), published in Annales de la Société entomologique de France and publications of LEMEE & TAMS (1950). Specimens from this classic collection, used for these publications, made its way to WITT Museum with DANIEL collection. They are sorted by families and uniformly labeled: "Hinterindien, Tonking, DANIEL" ["Indochina, Tonkin, DANIEL"]. A small handwritten original label with note "Tonkin, Cha pa, LEMAI" goes below.

Three examples show the outstanding results of the project.

290 species of Notodontidae are known today for the area of study. 13000 specimens of extensive expeditions’ material allowed describing 82 new species, 11 new subspecies, 2 new genera and 3 new subgenera. 86% of species, known today, originate from this material.

98 species of Lasiocampidae are known today for the area of study. Expeditions’ materials made it possible to describe 15 new species, 7 new subspecies and 2 new genera.

153 species of Limacodidae in all are known today from Vietnam. 11o species of them are new records for the land and 57 species of them were introduced to literature and described as new.

Materials from Vietnam-Project are published in Supplements to the journal ENTOMOFAUNA and generally supplied with color illustrations:

SCHINTLMEISTER, A. - 1996. Moths of Vietnam with special reference to Mt.Fan-si-pan, Teil 1. Introduction and collecting localities. ). - Entomofauna Supplement 9:1-12.

MEY, W.- 1996. Moths of Vietnam with special reference to Mt.Fan-si-pan, Microlepidoptera 1: Micropterigidae/Urmotten (Lepidoptera, Zeugloptera). - Entomofauna Supplement 9:13-20.

MEY, W.- 1996. Moths of Vietnam with special reference to Mt.Fan-si-pan, Microlepidoptera 2: Eriocottidae (Lepidoptera, Ditrysia, Tineoidea). - Entomofauna Supplement 9:21-32.

SCHINTLMEISTER, A. - 1996. Moths of Vietnam with special reference to Mt.Fan-si-pan, Family Notodontidae. - Entomofauna Supplement 9:33-248.

ZOLOTUHIN, V.V. & T.J. WITT - 2000. Moths of Vietnam with special reference to Mt.Fan-si-pan, Teil 2. The Camptolominae of Vietnam and adjacent territories (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae). - Entomofauna Supplement 11:1-12.

ZOLOTUHIN, V.V. & T.J. WITT - 2000. Moths of Vietnam with special reference to Mt.Fan-si-pan, Teil 2. The Mirinidae of Vietnam. - Entomofauna Supplement 11:13-24.

ZOLOTUHIN, V.V. & T.J. WITT - 2000. Moths of Vietnam with special reference to Mt.Fan-si-pan", Teil 2. The Lasiocampidae of Vietnam. - Entomofauna Supplement 11:25-104.

USTJUZHANIN, P. & V. KOVTUNOVICH - 2009. The plume moths (Lepidoptera, Pterophoridae) of Vietnam, with description of a new species of Xyroptila MEYRICK, 1908. - Entomofauna Supplement 16:3-10.

YAKOVLEV, R.V. & T.J. WITT - 2009. The Carpenter Moths (Lepidoptera, Cossidae) of Vietnam. - Entomofauna Supplement 16:11-32.

SOLOVYEV, A.V. & T.J. WITT - 2009. The Limacodidae of Vietnam (Lepidoptera). - Entomofauna Supplement 16:33-230.

ZOLOTUHIN, V.V. & T.J. WITT - 2009. The Bombycidae of Vietnam (Lepidoptera). - Entomofauna Supplement 16:231-272.

ZOLOTUHIN, V.V. & V.V. SINYAEV - 2009. A new genus and 2 new species of Lasiocampidae of Vietnam (Lepidoptera). - Entomofauna Supplement 16:273-281.