Vietnam is a country in Southeast Asia, long from north to south, with temperate, subtropical, and tropical climates in different parts of the country. Based on the results of two years of insect surveys in the subtropical and tropical regions of Vietnam, we conducted a comparative analysis of the species diversity of the Noctuoidea (Insecta: Lepidoptera) in the two survey areas, Bach Ma National Park and Protected Forest in the Vạn Xuân region. In addition, the host flora of the identified moths were analysed to determine the differences in host communities.

본 연구를 통해 한국산 Thyas속을 검토하였다. 이 중, T. coronata (Fabricius, 1775)는 성충 및 생식기 도해사진을 기반으로 최초로 그 분류학 적 기재문을 작성하였다. 모든 한국산 Thyas속 종에 대한 분류학적 진단형질 및 분포 정보를 함께 제공하였다.

The superfamily Noctuoidea Latreille, 1809 is the largest group within the order Lepidoptera. This big superfamily have been studied for a long time by numerous authors and literatures. However, these huge number of information make hard to study this important group. In this discussion, we hope to talk a simplified overview of significant literature on Korean noctuid moths, recent trends, and forecast for approaching them more easily.

The family Nolidae belongs to the superfamily Noctuoidea comprising about 1,800 described species of 186 genera in the world. In China, a total of 101 species, 45 genera were recorded in ‘Fauna Sinica’ Vol.16, (1999) and in case of Japan, 110 species, 42 genera have been recorded in ‘The Standard Moth of Japan Ⅱ’, (2011). In Korea, a taxonomic study of this family has been carried out by several reseachers: Fixsen (1887), Leech (1888), Inoue (1976, 1982), Oh (2001), Sohn et al (2005), Choi (2006, 2011). However the family Nolidae has rarely been studied in Korea. A total 45 species, 25 genera have been reported from Korea (NIBR, 2016). In the present study, We overviewed the family Nolidae, with illustrations of adults in each genus, add checklist.

The family Erebidae (Lepidoptera, Noctuoidea) is one of four quadrifid noctuoid families recently redefined by Zahiri et al. (2011) and Zaspel et al. (2012). Fibiger and Lafontaine (2005) verified the monophyly of Erebidae in terms of morphology but retained Arctiidae and Lymantriidae as separate families. These two groups were readjusted as erebid subfamilies in the latest phylogeny of Noctuoidea (Zahiri et al., 2011), and by van Nieukerken et al. (2011). Erebidae, as currently defined comprises 1760 genera and 24.569 species (van Nieukerken et al., 2011), representing the largest family of the Lepidoptera. The quadrifid Noctuoidea describes taxa in which forewing vein M2 arises closer to the origin of M3 than M1, in the lower part of the discal cell, so that the cubital vein appears to be four-branched; M2 in the hindwing is present giving vein Cu a four-branched appearance. Taxonomic study of the Arctiidae in Cambodia has been done by a few foreign entomologists. As the results of this study, about 98 species of 45 genera belonging to Arctiidae were recorded from Cambodia, most of them are recorded for the first time in Cambodia.

We newly sequenced mitochondrial genomes of Spodoptera litura and Cnaphalocrocis medinalis (Lepidoptera) to obtain further insight into mitochondrial genome evolution and investigated the influence of optimal strategies on phylogenetic reconstruction of Lepidoptera. Estimation of p-distances of each mitochondrial gene for available taxonomic levels has shown the highest value in ND6, whereas the lowest values in COI and COII at the nucleotide level, suggesting different utility of each gene for different hierarchical group when individual genes are utilized for phylogenetic analysis. Phylogenetic analyses mainly yielded the relationships (((((Bombycoidea + Geometroidea) + Noctuoidea) + Pyraloidea) + Papilionoidea) + Tortricoidea), evidencing the polyphyly of Macrolepidoptera. The tests of optimality strategies, such as exclusion of third codon positions, inclusion of rRNA and tRNA genes, data partitioning, RY recoding approach, and recoding nucleotides into amino acids suggested that the majority of the strategies did not substantially alter phylogenetic topologies or nodal supports, except for some familial relationship only in the amino acid dataset.

The family Arctiidae belonging to superfamily Noctuoidea, it was divided into three subfamilies: Lithosiinae, Arctiinae, and Syntominae (Kitching and Rawlins, 1999; Conner, 2009). The family include 11,155 species of 750 genera worldwide (Heppner, 2005). About 6000 species distribute in the Neotropics but the family is represented in all the main zoogeographical regions (Scoble, 1992). Taxonomic study of the Arctiidae in Cambodia has been done by a few foreign entomologists. As the results of this study, about 90 species of 40 genera belonging to Arctiidae were recorded from Cambodia, most of them are recorded for the first time in Cambodia. 21 species are briefly redescribed in this study such as: Nyctemera coleta (Boisduval, 1832), Brunia antica (Walker, 1854), Darantasia cuneiplena (Walker, 1859), Eilema longpala (Holloway, 2001), Cabarda sequens (Walker, 1862), Lyclene lutara (Moore, 1859), Teulisna steineri (Holloway, 2001), Cyana obliquilineata (Hampson, 1900), and Cyana quadrinotata (Walker, 1897), etc.

The family Arctiidae is a large and diverse family of moths with around 11,155 species of 750 genera (Heppner, 2005) in three subfamilies found all over the world, including 6,000 neotropical species (Scoble, 1995). The family is characterized in the following characters (Kitching ＆ Rawlins, 1999): hindwing with Sc+R and S fused for about 1/3 length of discal cell, occasionally completely fused, or only fused for 1/4 length of cell; almost always with either fore coxa, patagium, or abdomen orange or red and contrasting with color of dorsal thorax; metathorax with tymbal organs appearing as a striated band on katepisternum. Taxonomic study of the Arctiidae in Cambodia has been done by a few foreign entomologists. As the results of this study, about 90 species of 40 genera belonging to Arctiidae were recorded from Cambodia, most of them are recorded for the first time in Cambodia. Besides, 12 species have not been identified yet. The materials for identification are based on the collection of University of Incheon, which were collected from 2009-2012 in Cambodia by Cambodian and Korean researcher.

Two complete mitochondrial genomes of the tobacco cutworm, Spodoptera litura (Lepidoptera: Noctuoidea) and the rice leaf roller, Cnaphalocrocis medinalis (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), were sequenced. Each 15,388 bp and 15,368 bp-long genome contained both the lepidopteran specific gene arrangement that differ from the most common arrangement of insects by the movement of tRNAMet to a position 5’-upstream of tRNAIle. Neither of the species have typical COI start codon. Instead, the CGA (arginine) sequence that is commonly present in other lepidopterans was also found both in S. litura and C. medinalis. The evolutionary rates among 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs) in Lepidoptera showed ATP8 the highest, whereas COI the lowest. The high A+T-content, which is characteristic of mitochondrial genome was well reflected in the two lepidopteran mitochondrial genomes: higher frequency of A/T-rich codons, severe A/T bias in 3rd codon position, and extremely high A/T content in the A+T-rich region. Because insect mitochondrial genomes harbor biased nucleotide and resultantly biased amino acid sequences, phylogenetic inference is often misled by them. Although each recoded and unrecoded datasets for nucleotide sequences and amino acid sequences of PCGs provided overall identical topology, regardless of recoded scheme, each nucleotide and amino acid dataset provided difference in the status of Macrolepidoptera, providing a monophyletic group by amino acid dataset, whereas non-monophyletic group by nucleotide dataset.