by Horst Rötschke (Spaichingen) & Kurt Huber (Scharten)

With the interactive CD-ROM 'The Noctuid Moths of Central Europe' we present the first of a series of determination aids called 'Butterflies and moths of the World'. The present CD pictures 740 species of Noctuid moths with more than 1,300 images and additional drawings. Various additional functions, such as a pre-selection of species according to occurrence within countries, phenology or wing characters were designed to guarantee smooth and safe species determinations. Of particular interest is a feature which allows the creation of customised plates of similar species that can be stored or modified in accordance with the needs and knowledge of the user. Besides the usual taxonomic description for each species, information on nomenclature of scientific names, key characters for identification, distribution and similar species are given. As a supplement, an identification quiz, a puzzle and a mind game using images of the moth species provide ways to memorise the hallmarks of a species in an enjoyable way.

The production of this CD would have been impossible without the co-operation of many contributors and colleagues.

We owe thanks to AXEL STEINER (Stuttgart) for his excellent advice regarding nomenclature, determination, distribution, the identification of key characters and for his drawings of the genitalia.

NORBERT HIRNEISEN, ALEXANDER KROUPA and FRANK STREITZIG (V.I.M.) were responsible for the technical realisation of the CD. The visual conception was created by STEPHAN PLITEK (Karlsruhe); the graphical design of the CD case was the work of ROLF WITT (www.umbw.de, Oldenburg). Together with Dr. CHRISTIAN KÖPPEL (V.I.M.), who was the responsible manager of the project, we acknowledge the numerous ideas and contributions leading to the present work.

Last but not least we wish to list alphabetically all colleagues and natural history museums providing specimens of Noctuid moths for the images:

• DANIEL BARTSCH, Stuttgart-Feuerbach, Germany
• HORST BOBITS, Vienna, Austria
• Dr. SABINE GAAL-HASZLER, The Museum of Natural History in Vienna, Austria
• Dr. PETER GYULAI, Miskolc, Hungary
• Dr. CHRISTOPH HÄUSER, The State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart, Germany
• Ing. ROBERT HENTSCHOLEK, Linz, Austria
• Dipl.-Biol. NORBERT HIRNEISEN, Bonn-Bad Godesberg, Germany
• HENRI HOPPE, Klein Pravtshagen, Germany
• Dr. PETER HUEMER, Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck, Austria
• Mag. Dr. MARTIN LÖDL, The Museum of Natural History in Vienna, Austria
• Mag. SIEGFRIED ORTNER, Bad Ischl, Austria
• AXEL STEINER, M.A., The State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart, Germany
• Dr. GERHARD TARMANN, Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck, Austria

July 2002
Horst Rötschke and Kurt Huber