e Natural History of Burnet Moths (Zygaena Fabricius, 1775) (Lepidoptera: Zygaenidae), Part 6.3.1 Species section

Foreword
Foreword A. Hausmann
Burnet moths (genus Zygaena F.), the subject of the herewith published
monograph, are a truly fascinating group, a real treasure in the realm of
biodiversity. With this book, the authors off er you the pleasure of discovering
the complete diversity of these beautiful, sun-loving, tame and gentle
creatures. Because of their beauty, easy traceability and ecological sensibility,
burnet moths can be considered one of the research ‘fl agships’ of Lepidoptera;
they are most popular among collectors, photographers and/or
moni toring lepidopterists and frequently used for environmental analyses
and conservational decisions.
In the year of 2017, Axel F. Hofmann and W. Gerald Tremewan (‘Gerry’) published
the fi rst part of their ‘trilogy’ on the natural history of burnet moths,
which doubtlessly is the best researched and most extensively illustrated
monograph ever published on a lepidopteran group. A er volume 1, including
a general section and introductory chapters on historical observations on the
biology of burnet moths with detailed remarks on Afrotropical and Oriental
Zygaeninae, the herewith presented volume 3 (volume 2 will follow later)
deals with the variability, distribution, preimaginal stages, biology and habitats
of the 108 validated species of this genus.   ough being emblematic, species
discrimination is not always easy and species delimitation was controversial
in some cases.   is volume is a valuable, modern tool for species
identifi cation and it summarizes, on more than 1100 pages, a huge number of
facts and data concerning all species and species groups of the ‘red zygaenids’.   e quality of data is warranted by
the profound knowledge of habitats and by many hundreds of rearings (a er countless expeditions to each corner
of the Palaearctic region where burnet moths occur) paired with the outstanding scientifi c precision of both authors.
Like in the fi rst volume, Axel Hofmann demonstrates his great skills to invent innovative and reader-friendly ways
of presentation. As in the table of contents (‘coloured pathway’) with exemplary photographs of each species or the
double map presentations with one map for range and type localities and another for recorded sites. Each map has
its own defi ned coauthorship with diff erent symbols suggesting and ensuring correct citation of all data.
We owe deep respect and thankfulness to Axel Hofmann who did not get discouraged when his co-author passed
away in 2016, with his publisher following in 2019, and who was fi ghting extremely hard to realize this monograph
which again (as Part I) has to be judged THE model and THE optimum how lepidopteran monographs can best be
published.   is is an example of a book that can be expected to remain the standard reference forever. Many thanks
to the authors also for assembling and publishing thousands of photographs which make it a real pleasure to use
these books. Anyone who has ever published a book, even a small one, knows how time-consuming it is. However,
for preparing monographs like these of Axel and Gerry, ‘normal scientists’ would have to invest several life times.
Since that is not possible no monographs of comparable quality and comprehensiveness exist.
A fi nal remark of mine: Please do not miss reading the last chapter of Axel Hofmann’s preface to Vol. 3. More and
more there is a common consensus among scientists that we are in the middle of the sixth mass extinction with
100fold species extinction rates compared with the ‘normal rates’ (Ceballos & Ehrlich, 2018). Extinction of 40% of
the world’s insect species over the next few decades is predicted by Sánchez-Bayo & Wyckhuys (2019) and the severe
loss of insect biomass has been shown in several other studies (e. g. Hallmann et al., 2017; Lister & Garcia,
2018). Similarly, the life-long experience of the authors with Zygaenidae, which are one of the best indicators for
environmental changes, clearly points to cases of extinction and to the loss of population sizes, which highlight the
urgent need of taking the right political decisions and of acting in favour of saving habitats, the biotic and abiotic
conditions of a global nature. Professor R. L. H. Dennis, in his wonderful foreword to Volume 1, draws a parallelism
between the German word for Burnet moths, ‘Blutströpfchen’ (blood drops) and the human-induced wounds that
we encounter everywhere on our planet. Let us get inspired from each ‘blood drop’ in this book to understand that
we cannot remain passive in front of the dramatic scenario of increasing extinction rates and habitat destruction.