Two autumn collecting expeditions highlight the under-researched Lepidoptera fauna of Albania: new records and notes on related literature with additions to the fauna of the country (Lepidoptera: Macroheterocera)
Abstract: The results of two entomological expeditions conducted in September–October 2025 near Mali me Gropa (Central Albania) concerning Macroheterocera are presented. One genus and three species are new for Albania, nine species are reported for the second time from the country. Among the new species, Gortyna borelii lunata (Freyer, 1838) is from Appendices II and IV of the EEC 92/43 Habitats Directive, while Nothocasis rosariae Scalercio, Infusino & Hausmann, 2016 is recorded for the second time from the Balkan Peninsula. The highest altitudes and the southernmost observation of Gortyna borelii lunata are also presented. For thirty other species, third and fourth reports for Albania are announced. Comprehensive literature sources are gathered to all 122 reported species.
Keywords: Albania, faunistics, Geometridae, Lepidoptera, Noctuidae, protected species
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Additional information
Received: 30 April 2026 · Accepted: 29 May 2026
Editor: Mihail Kechev
Conflicts of interest:
No potential conflict of interest has been reported by the authors, reviewers, or subject editor.
Authors’ contributions (using CrediT ↗):
Botond Balogh: conceptualisation, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, project administration, resources, supervision, visualisation, writing—original draft; Balázs Tóth: data curation, investigation, resources, visualisation, writing—review and editing; Áron Horváth: investigation, resources, visualisation; Stoyan Beshkov: data curation, investigation, resources, visualisation, writing—review and editing; Nimród Varga: conceptualisation, data curation, investigation, resources, writing—review and editing.
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Cite as
Balogh B., Tóth B., Horváth Á., Beshkov S., Varga N. 2026 Two autumn collecting expeditions highlight the under-researched Lepidoptera fauna of Albania: new records and notes on related literature with additions to the fauna of the country (Lepidoptera: Macroheterocera). Historia naturalis bulgarica 48: 189–219.