The superfamily Pterophoroidea is a unique group of slenderlybuilt moths with long legs and narrow and fissured/clefted wings. The forewing may have one, sometimes two and rarely three clefts, whereas, the hindwing is always clefted twice. The moths referred to this superfamily are commonly called the 'plume-moths'. Except for Meyrick (1905Meyrick ( , 1906Meyrick ( , 1907Meyrick ( , 1911 and Fletcher (1909Fletcher ( , 1914Fletcher ( , 1921Fletcher ( , 1925Fletcher ( , 1926Fletcher ( , 1931Fletcher ( , 1940, no concrete attempt has been made by any other worker to collect and study these moths from India. The fact remains that due to their being smaller in size and difficult to handle taxonomically, this group of moths pose serious problems in collection and identification. Accordingly, in this paper an effort has been made to fill the gaps in our knowledge on this group of moths from northwestern India.
METHODOLOGYIn view of the nocturnal behavior of pterophorid moths, their collection was done with the help of a portable light trap fitted with 125w mercury vapour lamp to attract the moths. The traps were installed near ground level amongst bushes as the moths are generally weak fliers. In addition to this, a mercury vapour lamp was also hung along a white cloth sheet secured to a wall or directly over a plain white wall. Specimens were then collected individually in small glass tubes. Each collected specimen was spread and pinned through the mid of mesothorax. The spread specimens were preserved in the insect storage boxes and fumigated with naphthalene balls. Specimen data such as date of collection, name of the locality, altitude and name of the collector etc. were written down. To prepare permanent slides of the wings, the method discussed by Common (1970) and advocated by Zimmerman (1978) has been followed. To study the external male and female genitalia, the method suggested by Robinson (1976) has been followed with slight modification. All specimens are deposited in the Lepidoptera Laboratory, Department of Zoology, Punjabi University, Patiala. Collection numbers will be assigned when part of the collection will be submitted to ZSI as per the understanding with the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. All the specimens were collected by the authors. Meyrick, 1908. Trans. ent. Soc. Lond., 1908 Material examined: 1 male, 4.iii.1998, 12 males, 4-20.viii.1998, 6 males, 12-25.ix.1998, 20 males, 1 female, 1-25.viii.1999, 3 males, 1-20.ix.1999, 1 male, 5.x.1999, PUP, Patiala, Punjab, 250m; 1 male, 2.vi.1998, one male, FRI, Dehradun, Uttaranchal, 700m.
Superfamily
Deuterocopus planeta Meyrick Deuterocopus planetaDistribution: India (Coorg, Khasi Hills), Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Timor, Kei Island, (Robinson et al., 1994).
Diagnostic featuresMale genitalia (Figs. 1-4): Uncus small, slender, bearing backwardly directed setae; tuba analis well developed; tegumen bilobate, lobes well developed; valvae symmetrical, costa straight, sacculus well developed, long, broad, with a spannershaped bi...
