Book Review: Lepidoptera Iranica – A captivating journey into the fascinating world of Iran's butterflies and moths

Studies of the mechanism underlying the range expansion of organisms have mainly focused on environmental conditions at the edges of species' distributions, potentially ignoring other possible factors. Here, we demonstrated the outbreak range expansion of meadow moth from North China to Northeast China in the past three outbreak periods. We found that the negligible infestation in Northeast Chi...

Moths were collected from different parts of Peshawar during June to August in 2007 to determine their diversity, species richness and evenness. A total number of 774 moth specimens were collected by using simple light traps operated from dusk to dawn daily for sixty nights. The moths caught were identified up to family level. Families Noctuidae, Pyralidae, Arctiidae, Geometridae, Sphingidae an...

Calling female moths attract their mates late at night with intermittent release of a species-specific sex-pheromone blend. Mean frequency of pheromone filaments encodes distance to the calling female. In their zig-zagging upwind search male moths encounter turbulent pheromone blend filaments at highly variable concentrations and frequencies. The male moth antennae are delicately designed to de...

We formulate a novel host parasite model to study the dynamics of the outbreak of the gypsy moths. Assuming a Ricker dynamics for the host population and an infestation that takes place after the growth limitations take effect in the plant dynamics, a two dimensional discrete model of the leaf mass and the gypsy moths mass is constructed. The parameter space is determined by the growth rate of ...

We present an interactive key that is available online through any web browser without the need to install any additional software, making it an easily accessible tool for the larger public. The key can be found at http://identify.naturalis.nl/lithocolletinae. The key includes all 86 North-West European Lithocolletinae, a subfamily of smaller moths ("micro-moths") that is commonly not treated i...

Host-parasite systems have been models for understanding the connection between shifts in resource use and diversification. Despite theoretical expectations, ambiguity remains regarding the frequency and importance of host switches as drivers of speciation in herbivorous insects and their parasitoids. We examine phylogenetic patterns with multiple genetic markers across three trophic levels usi...

We present an interactive key that is available online through any web browser without the need to install any additional software, making it an easily accessible tool for the larger public. The key can be found at http://identify.naturalis.nl/lithocolletinae. The key includes all 86 North-West European Lithocolletinae, a subfamily of smaller moths (“micro-moths”) that is commonly not treated i...

Ultrasonic mating signals in moths are argued to have evolved via exploitation of the receivers' sensory bias towards bat echolocation calls. We have demonstrated that female moths of the Asian corn borer are unable to distinguish between the male courtship song and bat calls. Females react to both the male song and bat calls by "freezing", which males take advantage of in mating (deceptive cou...

On the basis of an assemblage of fossilized wing scales recovered from latest Triassic and earliest Jurassic sediments from northern Germany, we provide the earliest evidence for Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies). The diverse scales confirm a (Late) Triassic radiation of lepidopteran lineages, including the divergence of the Glossata, the clade that comprises the vast multitude of extant moth...