Butterflies in Kakamega Forest, Western Kenya

The following list reflects the current state of research into Kakamega's Lepidoptera. Well known are butterflies with 487 species (this is more than a half of all butterfly species occurring in Kenya), although there is a lack of biological information for many species. In the last decades investigations on the moth fauna of Kakamega Forest increased not least because of the BIOTA AFRICA research programme. Currently there are more than 600 species of moths known from the forest area plus an unknown number of "Microlepidoptera" species, many of them new to science. Against this background the following list has to be treated as preliminary. Future research efforts will add further species. Some Lepidoptera taxon groups as most Noctuidae and Geometridae as well as "Microlepidoptera" are underrepresented in this list.