Book review - Thyretini of Africa

Abstract

Among the different groups of Arctiidae the tribe Thyretini occupies a special position. It was treated as a family in its own for a long time. Since all species occur only on the African continent, including the Arabian Peninsula, the group was regarded as a typical endemic element of the Afrotropical Lepidoptera fauna. It is indeed endemic to Africa, however, it lost its familygroup rank as a result of several phylogenetic studies, and eventually is listed today as a mere tribe among the Syntominae. Unfortunately, together with the taxonomic downgrading the peculiar biogeographic significance of the group moved somewhat out of focus. This is exemplified in the present book. Though the Afrotropical Region as a biogeographic term was stressed in the book’s sub-title and therefore seemingly promised the reader to find something in this field, the book does not provide even a small chapter on distribution or a distribution map. Surely, a catalogue is not the place to present chapters of general interest, but the series Entomonograph was a suitable platform to provide a little bit more than a species-list and taxonomy. Currently 194 species of Thyretini are recognised. Information on the original description, type locality and depositories of type specimens are provided in a list, which is named “Catalogue”. The same list of species with the same numbering is repeated in a second chapter “Description of species”. Here, additional data referring to morphology, biology, distribution and, in some cases, to taxonomic problems are provided for each species, but not for genera and subgenera. The genus-group level is treated in a separate chapter “Taxonomic changes and comments...”, but only seven genera and subgenera are discussed. The new genus Cameroonia is established here, but was not mentioned in the summary of the book. Species of Thyritini often exhibit considerable variability and, therefore, many forms were described and named as aberrations. The author has summarised all these infrasubspecific names into a chapter “Unavailable names”. As a result, the user of the book has to go through several chapters to retrieve the complete information for any particular species. Is this a catalogue? Usually, a catalogue concentrates data for a taxon in one place, and does not split the information deliberately into several lists, as is practicised here. This rather strange design and arrangement makes the book hard to use and inadequate for the purposes of a catalogue. In fact, the book is a mixture of a monograph, an identification manual and a catalogue. It is more substantial than a catalogue but less than a monograph. Nonetheless, the book is a big step forward in the taxonomy of Thyretini. The adults of all species, including type specimens, are illustrated in colour, and the genitalia of both sexes (if known) are presented as b/w photos taken from slides of genital preparations. These are important images for the correct determination of species. Despite the unusual structure of the book, it is, however, an indispensable tool for all Lepidopterists working on the Afrotropical fauna.