Illustrated catalogue and preliminary phylogeny of 330 species of Arctiinae moth species from the Chocó rainforest in NW Ecuador: most species are undescribed

Gunnar Brehm, Dennis Böttger, Ugo Mendes Diniz , David A. Donoso, Mareike Kortmann, Jörg Müller, Dominik Rabl, Alexander Keller, Michel Laguerre

Tropical rain forests are the most species rich terrestrial habitats on Earth, but their insect diversity is understudied, and it is unclear how many species are already scientifically described. A model group to study description patterns are tiger moths (Erebidae: Arctiinae), a species-rich moth clade that comprises subtaxa that differ considerably in appearance. We inventoried Arctiinae moths in a lowland rainforest in the Canandé and Tesoro Escondido Reserves, NW Ecuador, and sorted 12,335 individuals into 330 species, of which 303 had DNA barcode (COI) data extracted. We found 52 species of Lithosiini, 4 species of Arctiina, 17 species of Pericopina, 132 species of Phaegopterina, 52 species of Euchromiina and 71 species of Ctenuchina. A total of 45% of the species can be assigned to known named species, but the numbers vary considerably within the subtaxa: While in the conspicuous butterfly-like Pericopina 82% are described, this figure is only 26% for the smaller and much cryptic Lithosiini, indicating a strong description bias even within a relatively well-known group of macromoths. Most of the undescribed species have probably not yet been deposited in any museum collection. This indicates that particularly small and inconspicuous moth species have so far been neglected and that museum collections are currently not a representative archive of insect diversity. Therefore, more systematic and non-biased collection campaigns should be carried out for better estimates of insect diversity. All 330 Arctiinae species are listed in three electronic catalogues, which contain all barcoded individuals as well as corresponding type material from museums, allowing a transparent and straightforward verification of all identifications. We constructed a preliminary phylogeny using literature data as backbone in combination with our DNA COI sequence data which provides a unique and useful data base for future studies in the Chocó rainforest.