Abstract: A total of 3 751 species noctuids belonging to 845 genera of 20 subfamilies from China were inventoried into a database, and their distribution patterns were analyzed. The results indicated that most of the Chinese noctuids could be assigned into four faunal elements：Eurytopic,  Palaearctic, Oriental and East Asian. Among them East Asian element predominated over the other elements, making up 51.35 percent of the total species，then Oriental element occupying 25.51%, Palaearctic 18.45% and Eurytopic only 2.26%. The distribution of the family in the seven zoogeographical regions of China was characterized by the compounds of various elements in various taxa. Eurytopic element (85 species) was fairly well-distributed in the seven regions. Oriental (957 species) and Palaearctic (692 species) elements were distributed in stairs with latitude by distinct orientation. For East Asian element, South China pattern (1 363 species) and North China pattern (290 species) were of isolated-distribution; Central China pattern (273 species) were of multi-region and cross-boundary distribution, but mainly distributed in North-China Region, Central-China Region, Qinghai-Xizang Region and South-West Region. Parsimony analysis of endemicity (PAE) was made to identify areas of endemism. The regions and distribution of these areas of endemism were mostly in congruence with the zoogeographical region division of China, but Taiwan was close to the Central-China Region in endemism. Based on the results of key fauna analysis, the priority regions for conservation were proposed in the sequence of Taiwan, Yunan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Sichuan, Hainan, Heilongjiang and so on.

Key words: Lepidoptera, Noctuidae, fauna, distribution, fauna element, similarity analysis, PAE, key fauna analysis, China