Lepidoptera (Insecta) of polar deserts

Abstract

Four species of Lepidoptera were found on Bolshevik Island, the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago (the Middle-Siberian Arctic sector). The noctuid Xestia aequaeva (Benjamin, 1934) and the geometrid Psychophora cinderella Viidalepp, 2001 are considered residents, while the pickleworm Gesneria centuriella (Denis et Schiffermuller, 1775) and the plutellid Plutella xylostella (Linnaeus, 1758) were brought to the island by air currents. The records of Xestia aequaeva (78°37′N) and Psychophora cinderella (78°56′N) on Severnaya Zemlya are the northernmost for the families Noctuidae and Geometridae in the entire Palaearctic. The European, Middle-Siberian, and Beringian sectors of the Arctic appear to support two sympatric species of the genus Psychophora. The “last” lepidopterans along the heat gradient in the Northern Hemisphere are Psychophora spp. (including P. cinderella) and Gynaephora groenlandica (Wocke, 1874). Both may serve as indicators in analysis of long-term climate changes in the Far North. The most important adaptations of Lepidoptera, as well as of other arthropod groups, to inhabiting the polar deserts are polyphagy and the capacity for perennial development, with female flight reduced or absent.