Lepidoptera Cossidae: India
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Lepidoptera Cossidae
Introduction
The members of the family Cossidae, commonly known as 'Goat Moths', 'Carpenter Moths' or the 'Leopard Moths', have assumed considerable phylogenetic and economic importance. Some of the species like the notorious teak-wood borer, Xyleutes ceramicus (Walker) and X. persona ( Le Guillou) fonn numerous galleries inside the tissues of living trees, and are not detected till the tree is sawn. Sometimes the wound caused by insects are sufficient enough to kill the valuable tealc. Zeuzera coffeae Nietner is another well known Cossid borer in coffee, which is reported to attack other 35 host-plants, including valuable sandalwood, citrus, cotton, jasmine, and teak.' The presence of larvae in the tree, can be detected only by the presence of pellets of frass on ground below the infested branches. If the tree is young, the attack by Cossids may prove to be fatal.
Phylogenetically, the Cossidae have been considered to be most primitive and believed to have retained the ancient type of wing venation (Turner, 1918, Seitz, 1929). Seitz (1912) traced its relationship with Microlepidopteran families, viz., Tortricidae and Hepialidae. Turner (1918, 1946) claimed that all the major families of Lepidoptera have, probably, evolved from Cossidae by the process of reduction of veins. His hypothesis led him to propose a new name, Protocossidae, a hypothetical name, which .gave Cossidae an ancestral status. Gaede (1929) commented on the highly remarkable features of this family and opined, 'We can distinguish different types of Lepidoptera among the Cossidae; they deviate so much from each other that even the homogeneousness of the family is doubted and some lepidopterologists are of the opinion that the characteristics common to the family are for the greater part metely to be considered as resemblance by convergence, produced by endophyte habits of larvae'
Classification Family Cossidae was for the first time divided into two distinct subfamilies,Cossinae and Zeuzerinae, by Neumoegen &Dyar (1894) and this was followed by several other workers like TiUyard (1926), Gaede (1933), Mehta (1933), Bryk (1937), Dyar (1937), Clench (1959), Comstock (1962) and Daniel (1962, 1965). Berger (1957), however, separated the Indian genus Dudgeonea Hampson from Cossidae and formed a distinct family Dudgeonidae due to the presence of tympanic organ, and proposed two subfamilies viz., (i) Cossinae, to include the whole of cossid-fauna and
(ii) Eulophonotinae. This classification has, however, not been followed by most of the workers. Handlirsch (1925), Janse (1932) and Brues, Melander &Carpenter (1954) 'went a step further and treated Cossidae in a broad sense and included several subfamilies, viz., Argyrotypinae, Eulophonotinae, Metarbelinae and Cossinae, the latter including whole of the Cos sid fauna, under two tribes Cossini and Zeuzerini. Essig (1951), however, considered Cossid fauna under two separate families, Cossidae and Zeuzeridae, which has been followed by Nayar, Ananthakrishnan &David (1976). Minet (1986) was of the opinion that the Mctarbellinae is one of the subfamilies of Cossidae.
Clench (1956-1960) in a series of paper on Cossidae and Roepke (1955, 1957) retained only two subfamilies, Cossinae and Zeuzerinae, as true Cossids and this classification has been followed by Arora (1965, 1971, 1976, 1982).
Historical Resume
i) Pre-1900
The first record of Cossid fauna from India appears to be by Donovan (1800), who reported Phalaena scalaris (Fabr.) and Phalaena mineus (Cramer) from Bengal, of w~chthe original records being from China and Batavia,'respectively. Leach (1815) proposed the word 'Cossida' for a group of moths which included Cossus cossus (Linn.) and its allied species, viz., Hepialis scalaris Fabricius, Phalaena Noctua strix Linn (1758) from America and Phalaena mineus Cramer (1779) from Batavia. Boisduval (1829) proposed 'Zeuzeridi' for the genus Zeuzera Nietner and its allies but subsequently changed (1834) it to 'Zeuzerides' Newman (1832) used 'Cossidae' and 'Zeuzeridae' and for this reason the credit of the authorship of the family name goes to him.
Additions to the Indian fauna were made in contributions by Herrich Schaffer (1854); Walker (1856, 1865); Nietner (1861); Moore (1865-1883); Butler (1890); Swinhoe (1884-1895) and Hampson (1891-1892). Of these, Hampson's (1892-1894) 'Fauna of British India, Moths' (Vol. 1¬4) series is the most noteworthy, which contributed to the study of 23 species from the Indian region. Another eight species were added by Swinhoe ( 1894), Hampson (1895) "and Dudgeon (1899), as one, six and one respectively, to the Indian fauna.
ii) 1901-1947
From the beginning of twentieth century to the year 1947, a variety of research papers ~as contributed on the Indian Cossidae. These are Dalla Torre (1923) and Kirby (1937), on bibliographical research; Beeson (1916-1941) and Chatterjee (1917) on Forest Entomology; Bethune-Baker (1914) and Mehta (1933) on genitalia;• Lefroy (1909), Kalshoven (1919-40), Fletcher (1920-30) and Ayyar (1940) on economic entomology; Gardner (1945) on immature stages; and Seitz (1912, 1929, 1937), Tillyard (1919, 1926), Turner (1918, 1945, 1946), Gaede (1929, 1933, 1934) and Daniel (1940, 1945) on taxonomical research.
ii) 1948-1990
The period after 1945 was most productive, as contributions were made by Daniel (1954-1965) in the fonn of Monographs on the Palaearctic Cossidae;, Viette (1951-52); Roepke (1955-1957) on Cossidae of New-Guinea and Malayasia; Clench (1956-59) on Neotropical, African and Western Chinese Cossidae; Berger (1957); Arora (1965-1982) on Cossidae of Indian region; Barlow (1982) on Cossidae in 'Moths of South-east Asia'; Hua (1986) and Chou et. ale (~986) on Cossidae of China; Eitschberger (1987) on Cossidae of Turkery; and Holloway (1987) on. Cossidae in 'Moths of Borneo'
Studies from Different Environs
The Indian Cossidae are well represented in the both Palaearctic as well as Oriental region of the Indian sub-continent. The genera Catopta Staudinger, .Cossus Fabricius and Holcocerus Staudinger, being mainly Palaearctic and tile remaining being mainly Oriental. The genus Paracossus Hampson is endemic to the Oriental region, represented by one•species each from Sri Lanka and Myanmar (Burma). In India, the Cossidae have been recorded from Kashmir in the north to the southern most parts of India, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Sikkim and Meghalaya in the east, through Bengal, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, U.P., M.P., Kerala, Kamataka•to Maharashtra in the west. The Cossidae have not been reported to occur in arid zone areas. Only the scientists of Zoological Survey of India, have contributed papers on' the study of Indian Cossidae.
Estimation. of Taxa
Dalla Torre (1923) catalogued about 500 species from the world which included 3S species from the Indian region. This number included all those which were either synonyms or erroneously placed as Indian. Subsequently, Viette (1951) recorded as many as 97 genera, of the world
The systematic revision of Indian Cossidae by Arora (1965-1982) has brought to light several species new to science, and the Indian fauna is estimated as follows: Cossinae Zeuzerinae Catopta Staudinger -2 spp. Azygophleps Hampson -4 spp. Cossus Fabricius -5 spp. Phragmataec.ia Newman -10 spp. EremocossuS Hampson -1sp. Xyleutes Hubner -8 spp. Paracossus Hampson -2 ~p. Zeuzera Nietner -6 spp. Holcocerus Staudinger -2 spp. (including one sub sp.) Genera Eremocossus and Parac.ossus are endemic to the Oriental region, each represented by species as given above.
Expertise India
In ZSI
G. S. Arora, Zoological Survey of India, Northern Reg. StIl., 218, Kaulagarh Road, Debra Dun (U.P.).
Abroad
Allan Watson, Dept. of Entomology, British Museum (N.H.) Cromwell Road, London SW 7 (UK).
I. V. Kozhanchikov, Zoological Institute, Academy of Sciences, Leningrad-l64 (U.S.S.R.). J. B. Heppner, Centre for Lepidoptera Research, Florida S tate Collection of Arthropods, Bureau of Entomology, P.O. Box 1269, Gainesville, Florida -32602 (USA).
J. D. Holloway, Dept of Entomology, British Museum (N.H.), Cromwell Road, London SW 7 (U.K.).
1. P. Donahue, Asstt. Curator, Entomology, Natural History Museum, 900, Exposition Boulevard, Los Angeles (USA).
L. A. Berger, Dept. of Entomology, Museum Royal du Congo BeIge Tervuren (Belgium). P. Viette, Museum Nationale d'Hist. Naturelle, 45 bis rue de Buffon, Paris -V (France).
Selected References
Arora, G.S. 1976. A taxonomic revision of the Indian species of the family Cossidae (Lepidoptera). Rec. zool. Surv. India, 69: 1-160, 3 pIs.
Barlow, H.S. 1982. Cossidae. In : An Introduction to the Moths of South-East Asia: ix + 305 pp., 50 pIs., The Malayan Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur.
Clench, H.K. 1959. Notes on African Cossidae. Verof! LAJol Staatssammi. Munch., 6 : 1-28, 3 pIs.
Holloway, J.D. 1986. Cossidae. In: 'Taxonomic Appendix' pp. 174-271. To : An Introduction to the Moths ofSouth-East Asia. Kuala Lumpur.
Holloway, J.D. 1987. The Moths of Borneo: Key to families Cossidae, Metarbelidae, Ratardidae, Dudgeonidae, Epipyropidae, and Limacodidae. Malay Nat. 1.,40 (1-2): 1-165 pp. Roepke, W. 1955. Notes and descriptions of Cossidae from Guinea (Lepidoptera: Heterocera). Trans. R. ent. Soc. Lond., 107 : 281-288. Roepke, W. 1957. The Cossids of Malaya region (Lepidoptera: Heterocera). -Verh. K. ned. AJcad. Wet. Ald. Nat.• (2) 52 (1): 1-60, 8 pIs. Viette, P. 1951. <;ontribution a l'etude des Cossidae (2 note). Les generes et leur espece type.-Lambillionea ,51 (5-8): 37-43; 51 (9-10): 58-60; 51 (11-12): 68-72.
