S. Mahunka szerk.: Folia Entomologica Hungarica 62. (Budapest, 2001)

ROVARTANI KÖZLEMÉNYEK LXII 2001 pp. 191-198 Two new Noctuidae species from Iran (Lepidoptera) B. Benedek and L. Ronkay Two new Noctuidae species from Iran (Lepidoptera) — Two new Noctuidae species from Iran, Autophila Jeleia sp. n. and Perigrapha (Rororthosia) gyurirani sp. n., are described. With 12 figures. Key words: Noctuidae, new species, Iran. INTRODUCTION The lepidopterological exploration of Iran has been started rather lately, only at the beginning of the twentieth century. It has been intensified at the 1930s, based mostly on the studies of Bytinsky-Salz, Pfeiffer, Schwingenschuss, Wiltshire and, on the most famous collectings of this area, of the Brandt brothers. As a result of these investigations, a large number of new Noctuidae taxa were discovered and described, making this very interesting and faunistically very rich area even more attractive for the subsequent explorers. The exploration of the Noctuidae fauna had continued until the end of the seventies, the largest and most representative materials were collected by Austrian lepidopterists, especially of Kasy and the Vartians (wife and husband). The field investigations had stopped radically in the very beginning of the eighties, due to the political changes in Iran and the war between Iran and Iraq, but the elaboration of the large collection material was started and continued uninterruptedly up to day. A new era for field studies has been opened a few years ago and numerous lepidopterological expeditions were carried out in the last two-three years. These expeditions were usually very effective, collecting often an enormously large number of insects, particularly due to the applications of modern methods and equipments. Most of the expeditions being organized by Hungarian entomologists and participated also by lepidopterists were also successful, thus, the taxonomic elaboration of their large and interesting Noctuidae material is still in an initial phase. The present paper contains the first results of this work, providing the descriptions of two new Noctuidae species. Another new Noctuidae species (an Agrochola Hübner, 1821) is described from Iran by Benedek & Ronkay (2001) in a separate article.