Lepidoptera of the Taymyr peninsula, northwestern Siberia

Abstract

The annotated list of 155 species of Lepidoptera, in addition to five records on unidentified species with known generic affinity, from the Taymyr national district is the first comprehensive account from this area. It is based on the results of the collecting trip of 2002, and on old materials collected by different researchers, and all published records collected by intensive bibliographic search and through consultations with colleagues. Four species erroneously reported from Taymyr are excluded from the list; 65 species are new for this district, including Clepsis mehli that is new to Russia and East Palaearctic, and Argyroploce mengelana reported from Asia for the first time. Records of 32 species are based exclusively on earlier publications; occurrence of other species is confirmed by the investigated material (listed in the paper). We expect that some hundreds of species are still yet to be discovered in Taymyr. The fauna of moths and butterflies of Taymyr is clearly more similar to that of East Palaearctic or Polar Ural than to that of northwestern Europe. In an European perspective, this fauna looks quite exotic and may resemble one that existed in Europe during the ice ages.