The South Asiatic Olethreutini (Lepidoptera, Tortricidae)

Although a large number of Tortricoid species and several genera from the Indo-Malayan region have been described by earlier authors (Walker, Snellen, Walsingham, Meyrick, and a few others), no survey of the present group has ever been made. Edward Meyrick, the author of most of the new names, has never attempted a synopsis of the Olethreutinae. He made surveys of the Australian and New Zealand Tortricoidea (1911), but the results are too superficial for our modern standards. During a long sojourn, working and collecting in Java, I became greatly fascinated by that fauna. Having completed a number of preliminary studies of the subfamily Tortricinae (1939 et seq.), I turned next to the South Asiatic, especially Javanese, Olethreutinae. After a long delay due to World War II, their revision has been initiated by the study of the two then least known and most confused genera, Bactra Stephens and Lobesia Guenée (Diakonoff, 1950 et seq.).