Noctuidae

This part of The Moths of Borneo was originally intended to cover the Nolinae and the Acontiinae, the latter as in the old Hampsonian classification of the Noctuidae (e.g. Nye, 1975). When the Nolidae were presented in a much broader context in Part 18 (Holloway, 2003), this part was indicated in the plan on the back cover of Part 18 to include the Bagisarinae, with taxa ejected from the expanded Nolidae, and the Eustrotiinae (including Eublemma Hübner). The latter then represented the remainder of the Acontiinae after this group had been restricted to the genus Acontia Ochsenheimer (Kitching & Rawlins, 1998). At that time, Acontia material from Borneo had not been located.

Work on the quadrifine noctuids under the broad umbrella of the Catocalinae (Holloway, 2005) led to more genera being excluded from these as potential Pantheinae, already partially covered by Holloway (1985), further Bagisarinae and also the Aediinae; Acontia species had also been located for Borneo.

The Eustrotiinae had been restricted essentially to a group of genera around Deltote Reichenbach and Maliattha Walker by Ueda (1984, 1987), and the classification of the Noctuoidea generally was undergoing considerable review on the basis of morphological (Fibiger & Lafontaine, 2005; Lafontaine & Fibiger, 2006) and molecular (e.g. Fang et al., 2000; Mitchell, 1994; Mitchell et al. 2000; Mitchell et al. 2006) evidence. These developments were reviewed in some detail in the part of this series just published (Holloway, 2008), including the proposal to recognise a much larger concept of the Noctuidae that included groups traditionally given family status such as the Arctiidae, Lymantriidae and Nolidae, as the molecular evidence consistently grouped these in a clade (the LAQ clade of Mitchell et al. (2006)) with most of the traditional quadrifine noctuid groups such as the Euteliinae, Stictopterinae, Catocalinae, ‘Ophiderinae’, Hypeninae and Herminiinae, the last being associated in a sister-relationship with the Aganainae (discussed also by Holloway (2008)).

This LAQ clade is sister-group to the traditional Noctuidae of Fibiger & Lafontaine (2005) that include all the trifine subfamilies and those with a strong vein M2 in the hindwing thought to be related to them, such as the Plusiinae, Bagisarinae, Pantheinae, and, from the traditional Acontiinae, stricter concepts of the Acontiinae and Eustrotiinae. Another traditional (Nye, 1975) acontiine genus, Stenoloba Staudinger, is now considered to belong to the Bryophilinae in this ‘trifine’ sequence (see p. 73), and one more, Amyna Guenée, is here tentatively associated with the Bagisarinae.

Most of the remainder of the traditional Acontiinae fall into three subfamilies of the LAQ clade, and these embrace the bulk of the Bornean acontiines. The Araeopteroninae include a small number of minute, delicate, slender-winged species in genera such as the type genus Araeopteron Hampson, currently under study by M. Fibiger. A few exemplar taxa are discussed on p. 76 et seq., but it is likely that many more species will be found to occur in Borneo.

More robust, deeper-winged species fall into genera that are here placed in an expanded concept of the Aventiinae (p. 81) and in the Eublemminae (p. 159). Evidence is presented (p. 81) to suggest that these two groups, with the Saroba Walker group of genera treated by Holloway (2005), form a monophyletic group for which Aventiinae is the oldest available name. This excludes the Pangraptinae, subordinated to the Eublemminae by Fibiger & Lafontaine (2005) without any justification in the form of synapomorphies.

Several genera from the traditional acontiines still cannot be assigned with confidence to any higher taxon currently available. These will be treated at the end. One, Lophomilia Warren, is placed with the Mecistoptera Hampson group of genera discussed by Holloway (2008).

This part thus brings to completion the coverage of the Noctuoidea, with the exception of the Micronoctuidae. This latter group was retained as a family by Lafontaine & Fibiger (2006), as its position could not be resolved on adult morphological data to hand, and information on early stage morphology and molecular data is needed to help clarify its position. The group is currently being intensely studied by M. Fibiger, who has recognised seven Bornean species in his description of one major section of the family (Fibiger, 2007). Progress will be reviewed in the final part of The Moths of Borneo, currently in preparation.

The final part will also attempt to set out, in a revised checklist, the current situation with regard to the classification of the Noctuoidea, assigning Bornean genera as far as is possible to groupings within it. All groups treated in this part have subfamily rank and would continue to have this whether assigned to a broadened concept of the Noctuidae or re