Cibyra, Walker, 1856

Nielsen, Ebbe S., Robinson, Gaden S. & Wagner, David 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), pp. 823-878 : 830-832

50: Cibyra

36: Eudalaca

28: Gorgopis

25: Aenetus , Fraus

21: Phassus

14: Abantiades , Dalaca auctt ., Gazoryctra

13: Aoraia

12: Oncopera , Prototheora

10: Callipielus , Dalaca , Palpifer

8: Mnesarchaea , Pharmacis

7: Afrotheora , Bipectilus , Triodia , Wiseana

5: Bordaia

4: Antihepialus, Druceiella , Elhamma , Hepialiscus , Ogygioses , Parapielus , P®tzneriana, P®tzneriella, Sthenopis , Sthenopis auctt .

3: Metahepialus , Napialus , Phymatopus , Phymatopus auctt ., Trictena

2: Aplatissa , Calada , Dioxycanus , Dumbletonius , Jeana , Korscheltellus

1: Andeabatis , Anomoses , Blanchardinella , Cladoxycanus , Genustes , Heloxycanus , Hepialus , Leto , Neohepialiscus , Neotheora , Osrhoes , Palaeoses , Parahepialiscus , Phassodes , Phialuse , Puermytrans , Roseala , Schausiana , Trichophassus , Xhoaphryx , Zelotypia , Zenophassus

As noted elsewhere ( Williams, 1944, 1964; Robinson and Tuck, 1996) the distribution of species among genera is a hollow curve that approximates to a logarithmic series. The frequency distribution of species among genera in the Exoporia is shown in table 2 with predicted frequency values for comparison.

Regional comparisons

The Exoporia is a geographically circumscribed and conservative group. Only six of the 68 genera occur in more than one geographical region or subregion. Gazoryctra and Korscheltellus are Holarctic; one of the 60 otherwise Oriental Endoclita species has crossed Weber’s line and is found in the Moluccas; Elhamma , Aenetus and Oxycanus occur in both Australia and the New Guinea subregion and the predominantly Australian Aenetus has, additionally, single species in New Zealand and New Caledonia. Exoporians are restricted by and large to signi®cantsized pieces of continental crust. Exceptions are Phassodes in Fiji and Western Samoa and the occurrence of odd species of Gazoryctra , Palpifer , Thitarodes , Phymatopus and Endoclita in Japan and the Kurile Islands. The distribution of Exoporia among the major geographic regions is summarized in table 3.

The inference that Exoporia have poor dispersive and/or colonizing abilities is borne out by the absence of the group from the islands of the Caribbean, and (with the exception of Endoclita sibelae ) the islands of Indonesia east of Weber’s line (excluding New Guinea). Extraordinary and inexplicable is the complete absence of Exoporia from tropical West Africa and from Madagascar. Whereas in the Oriental

for comparison.

and Neotropical regions Exoporia are diverse and successful in rain forest, this habitat has not been colonized in the Afrotropical region.

The relationship between exoporian diversity and land area ( table 3, ®gures 1 and 2) is imprecise and shows great variation. There is strong positive correlation between species present and total land area (see ®gure 1, R 2 5 0.71, p <0.002) but there is also much scatter with three outliers in the plot: New Zealand (species rich) and the Palearctic and Nearctic regions (both depauperate). While New Zealand has only about 1% of the land mass of either the Palearctic or Nearctic Regions, it exceeds both in species richness. A similar relationship is obtained when generic diversity is examined (see ®gure 2, R 2 5 0.68, p <0.003).

The exoporian and hepialid lineages are very much older than the fragmentation of Gondwana. There is a great temptation to consider the Exoporia and their distribution as relicts of this fragmentation and to interpret the present-day diOEerences in the continental faunas as evidence of resulting isolation, speciation and ecological specialization. However, there is no evidence that discrete continental exoporian faunas are monophyletic, nor should we expect them to be so. Until there is a robust phylogenetic classi®cation of the constituent genera of the Exoporia , we can only speculate about origins and about congruency of phylogenetic and geological events. Dugdale (1994), Nielsen and Kristensen (1989) and Nielsen and Robinson (1983) have attempted to identify synapomorphies between genera in diOEerent geographical regions and such top-down approaches promise to oOEer further insights into this intriguing group of insects.