Biodiversity and faunistic studies of the family Pyralidae (Lepidoptera) from Pothwar region,Punjab,Pakistan

Snout moths (lepidoptera: pyralidae) are economic pests of agricultural crops and forest plantations. to explore new species via taxonomic identification,127 specimens of moths were collected from different areas of pothwar region of pakistan including chakwal,attock,jhelum and rawalpindi districts during 2009-2010. the characters of the specimens were identified at species level by using hampson's key and other taxonomic resources. all of these species new to pyralid moth fauna of pothwar region namely: galleria mellonella linnaeus.,achroia grisella fabricius.,corcyra cephalonica staint.,chilo simplex butler.,scirpophaga auriflua zeller.,s. chrysorrhoa zeller.,leucinodes orbonalis guenee.,zinckenia fascialis cramer and cnaphalocrocis medinalis guenee. are reported for the first time from pothwar region. to understand the biodiversity of moths,distribution of the species were also studied for each district of pothwar region. the distribution pattern of corcyra cephalonica (42),leucinodes orbonalis (18),scirpophaga auriflua (10) and scirpophaga chrysorrhoa (9),chilo simplex (6),zinckenia fascialis (7),cnaphalocrocis medinalis (10),galleria mellonella (24) and achroia grisella (1) was observed. dichotomous keys have been built for low to higher taxa. photography of important taxonomic characters are also provided.