Language: English
The Noctuidae Europaeae series, as it was originally planned, was completed with volume 12. The editors agreed to produce an additional volume, volume 13, which contains the lymantriids and arctiids, the newcomers of the giant trunk called Noctuidae sensu lato or, more precisely, the "forewing quadrifid Noctuoidea", in order to follow the changes and provide an up-to-date picture about the taxonomy and systematics of the European Noctuoidea.
The scope of volume 13 has been considerably enlarged during the preparation of the manuscript, due to the co-operation of a small but enthusiastic international team of authors, incorporating a concise but informative, didactic overview of the recent phylogenetic results, the sketch of the modem, "four-families-system" of the former Noctuidae and the revised checklist of the European Noctuoidea having quadrifid forewing venation. The scientific content of the volume is based on the thorough revision of the European fauna of the four families, Nolidae, Erebidae, Euteliidae and Noctuidae, the results of these investigations are summarised in the checklist preceding the detailed discussion of the subfamilies Lymantriinae and Arctiinae. These subfamilies are, according to the new system, representatives of the huge clade formerly called "Noctuidae quadrifinae", and now named Erebidae.