Prototheora is a genus of moths. It is the only genus of the Prototheoridae, or the African primitive ghost moths, a family of insects in the lepidopteran order, contained in the superfamily Hepialoidea. These moths are endemic to Southern Africa.
| Prototheora | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Superfamily: | Hepialoidea |
| Family: | Prototheoridae Meyrick, 1917 |
| Genus: | Prototheora Meyrick, 1917 |
| Diversity[1] | |
| 12–13 species | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Diversity and distribution
Members of the genus Prototheora are found in South Africa (Kristensen, 1999: 60; Nielsen et al., 2000), Angola (Prototheora angolae) and the Mulanje Massif of Malawi (Davis, 2001). See also revisions by Janse (1942) and Davis (1996).
List of species
- Prototheora parachlora (Meyrick, 1919) (originally in Metatheora)
- =Prototheora paraglossa; Janse, 1942
- Prototheora petrosema Meyrick, 1917
- Prototheora monoglossa Meyrick, 1924
- Prototheora corvifera (Meyrick, 1920) (originally in Metatheora)
- Prototheora merga Davis, 1996
- Prototheora quadricornis Meyrick, 1920
- Prototheora biserrata Davis, 1996
- Prototheora serruligera Meyrick, 1920
- Prototheora cooperi Janse, 1942
- Prototheora geniculata Davis, 1996
- Prototheora drackensbergae Davis, 1996
- Prototheora angolae Davis, 1996
- Prototheora malawiensis Davis, 2001
References
- Davis, D.R. (1996). A revision of the southern African family Prototheoridae (Lepidoptera: Hepialoidea). Entomologica Scandinavica, 27: 393-439.
- Davis, D.R. (2001). A new species of Prototheora from Malawi, with additional notes on the distribution and morphology of the genus (Lepidoptera: Prototheoridae). Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington: 103(2): 452-456.Abstract
- Janse, A.J.T. (1942). The moths of South Africa. Volume IV, part 1. Jugatae 78 pp.
- Kristensen, N.P. (1999) [1998]. The non-Glossatan Moths. Ch. 4, pp. 41–62 in Kristensen, N.P. (Ed.). Lepidoptera, Moths and Butterflies. Volume 1: Evolution, Systematics, and Biogeography. Handbook of Zoology. A Natural History of the phyla of the Animal Kingdom. Band / Volume IV Arthropoda: Insecta Teilband / Part 35: 491 pp. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York.
- Nielsen, E.S., Robinson, G.S. and Wagner, D.L. 2000. Ghost-moths of the world: a global inventory and bibliography of the Exoporia (Mnesarchaeoidea and Hepialoidea) (Lepidoptera) Journal of Natural History, 34(6): 823-878.Abstract
Sources
External links
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Wikispecies has information related to Prototheora.