Catalogue of the Heterocerous Lepidoptera from French Oceania 
Pierre E. L. Viette 1 
Information about the lepidopterous fauna 
of the French territories in the Pacific Ocean 
is scarce. Aside from the original descriptions, 
no whole study has been carried out for New 
Caledonia, the Loyalty Islands, or the New 
Hebrides. The lepidopterous material collected 
by F. Sarrasin and J. Roux during their mission 
(1911) in the first two of these countries has 
never been studied. The fauna of the other 
French islands (Society Islands, Marquesas, 
Archipelago of the Tuamotus, Austral Islands, 
Gambier Islands) is better known through, 
first, the material collected by Miss Cheesman 
during the St. George Expedition ( 1924- 
1925) of which the Rhopalocera were studied 
by Poulton and Riley (1928), the Macro- 
heterocera by Collenette (1928) and Prout 
(1929), and the 'Micros” by Meyrick (1928- 
1929); and, second, through the material 
(Micros), collected by the Pacific Entomo- 
logical Survey, which was studied by Meyrick 
(1935 a, b). 
I have covered elsewhere ( Lepidopteres 
Rhopaloceres de l’Oceanie frangaise. Faune de 
1’Empire, Editions du Museum, Paris [in 
press}) the Rhopalocera of these regions, so 
here I present only a catalogue of the Hetero- 
cera. The information both is bibliographical 
and founded upon the insects present in the 
collections of the Department of Entomology 
of the National Museum of Natural History 
of Paris. Insects were brought to France by 
people who stayed in those regions (Marie, 
Joly, Quod, Mrs. Pruvot, Aubert de la Rue, 
Risbec, Catala). In spite of this, there is still 
very much to do, especially for the "Micros” 
of New Caledonia, Loyalty Islands, and New 
Hebrides. Many gaps exist; thus all the species 
1 Department of Entomology, National Museum of 
Natural History, Paris. Manuscript received July 8, 
1948. 
described belong to the group Heteroneura 
Ditrysia; the suborder Homoneura and the 
Heteroneura Monotrysia are at present un- 
known. I am therefore unable, for the time 
being, to study this group in the same way I 
have the Rhopalocera, which have always been 
the first Lepidoptera studied in a given area 
and which are, on the whole, well known. The 
publication of this catalogue, the first step 
towards the knowledge of the lepidopterous 
fauna of these regions, will be, I hope, a first 
clearing for the lepidopterists who will go to 
these districts. 
Very many species, especially in the New 
Caledonia, Loyalty Islands, and New Hebrides 
areas might still be signalized, either as new, 
or as belonging to the peripheral areas (Aus- 
tralia, New Guinea, etc.). 
I have followed the order given by Zerny 
and Beier (1936) for the order of the families. 
Within each family or sub-family, the order 
followed, when it exists, is that of the Lepidop- 
terorum Catalogus. For the Noctuidae, Hamp- 
son (1903 to 1913) has been taken as a guide. 
So as not to lengthen an already very long 
list of references, the references of the genera 
are not shown on this list. They can easily be 
found in S. A. Neave’s Nomenclator Zoologicus, 
4 vol. Zool. Soc. London, London 1939-1940. 
References to endemic genera are given, how- 
ever. 
Family TINEIDAE 
Nesoxena Meyrick (1928 a: 50 6) 
N. strangulata Meyrick (1928^: 507). Archi- 
pelago of the Tuamotus: Fakarava ("St. 
George” Exped.). 
Tinea Denis and Shiffermuller 
T. monospila Meyrick (1928^: 507). Society 
Islands: Tahiti ("St. George” Exped.). 
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