Book Review

MICROLEPIDOPTERA OF EUROPE, VOLUME 5:

MOMPHIDAE S.L. (MOMPHIDAE, BATRACHEDRI-

DAE, STATHMOPODIDAE, AGONOXENIDAE, COS-

MOPTERIGIDAE, CHRYSOPELEIIDAE). By Sjaak

(J.C) Koster & Sergey Yu. Sinev. Apollo Books, Stenstrup.

2003. 387 pages, 15 colour plates, genitalia drawings, 55

text figures. Hardback. ISBN 87-88757-66-8. DKK 720

(subscription discount if ordered directly from the publisher

is 10% on the ordinary price).

This most welcome fourth volume to the Microlepidoptera

of Europe covers a portion of the most conspicuous

European moths to be encountered in the superfamily Gele-

chioidea. For practical rather than scientific reasons,

authors unite the families covered in the Momphidae

sensu lato (Momphidae, Batrachedridae, Stathmopodidae,

Agonoxenidae, Cosmopterigidae, Chrysopeleiidae), a total

of thirty-seven genera and 163 species. The treatment is

geographically broad, encompassing North African and

Near East as well as European species. There are fifteen

boldly painted colour plates by Sjaak Koster and 160

beautifully executed line drawings of the male and female

genitalia by the authors. A few SEMs and line drawings are

scattered among the species diagnoses, although these do

not include any of adults in their resting posture.

The tortuous systematic history of ‘narrow-winged’

moths is summarized in the introduction. Some of the

most spectacular of all European micromoths are included,

such as the ‘Leuwenhoek Moth’ Pancalia leuwenhoekella,

known to most microlepidopterists as a cosmopterigid,

whose wing patterning of silver spangles on a deep orange

background, flaunted during hot sunshine, requires no

microscope to appreciate. A slight shortcoming of the plates

is that they fail to do justice completely to such metallic scale

patterns, but nevertheless are highly adequate for identifica-

tion, and include paintings of several types. The systematics

of the groups treated will probably continue to be in a state

of flux pending more detailed morphological and molecular

phylogenetic reconstructions. The short title of the book on

the hard cover is probably unhelpful as the six families

treated cannot be considered to comprise a natural group.

Indeed, as admitted by the authors, Sinev’s own morpholo-

gical work failed to reveal any synapomorphies supporting

this group. Rather, most of the families contained appear to

be well supported by autapomorphies; Hodges (1998) trea-

ted them as subfamilies of the Elachistidae (Agonoxeninae),

although the position of this group among the gelechioids

remains uncertain; of the Coleophoridae (Momphinae),

Batachedridae, and of the Cosmopterigidae (Cosmopterigi-

nae, Antequerinae, and Chrysopeleiinae).

Many interesting moth species are included in this book.

There is a painting of the holotype of the celebrated Eucle-

mensia woodiella (Curtis) last supposedly found on Kersall

Moor, Manchester, U.K. in June 1829, which is included in

the cosmopterigid subfamily Antequerinae. All but three of

the fifty or so moths originally collected were destroyed when

the collector Robert Cribb’s landlady threw his box in the fire

in revenge for rent arrears. The authors speculate interest-

ingly that, given that larvae of the other North American

member of the genus feed on Coccoidea (Hemiptera) of the

genus Kermes, which in Europe are all too minute to support

it, E. woodiella probably did not originate from Europe.

The work is printed on high quality paper. The authors

give short diagnoses of each genus and species, and

include descriptions of male and female genitalia.

Adequate synonymies are included. Keys are included

for a few difficult groups. There is a distribution matrix

summary by country, as is standard format for the Micro-

Lepidoptera of Europe series. Each species distribution

thus occupies a row across four pages; it is to be hoped

that future authors will consider maps as a more accurate

summary. With very few typographical errors, the level of

the text is excellent, for which the authors and editors are

to be congratulated.

The book is a high quality and significant alphataxo-

nomic work on some of the most beautiful moths of Europe.

Two species of a new antequeriine genus Gibeauxiella and

ten new species are described, and the holotypes are painted.

The circumstances of the discovery of the only known Eur-

opean specimens of both Gibeauxiella (that the discoverer

had placed in Hodgesiella) species on a single day in 1986 at

forest of Fontainebleau are also quite extraordinary and

emphasize the paucity of knowledge of the group. Again,

an element of mystery appears amongst these small and

striking moths. There are also a number of new synonymies

and combinations, including ones that affect the British

fauna, such as the revelation that British agonoxenid Chry-

soclita lathamella are in fact referable to the more recently

described C. razowskii. The work is an important addition

to all entomological libraries and also for the shelves of

European microlepidopterists in particular, but also other

entomologists interested in exquisite groups.

DAVID LEES

Natural History Museum London

Reference

Hodges, R.W. (1998) The Gelechioidea. Handbook of Zoology, 1.

Lepidoptera: Moths and Butterflies (ed. by N. P. Kristensen),

pp. 131–158. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin.

Systematic Entomology (2005) 30, 336

336 # 2005 The Royal Entomological Society