''Lachana alpherakii'' is a species of

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

of the subfamily

Lymantriinae The Lymantriinae (formerly called the Lymantriidae) are a subfamily of moths of the family Erebidae. The taxon was erected by George Hampson in 1893. Many of its component species are referred to as "tussock moths" of one sort or another. The ca ...

first described by

Grigory Grum-Grshimailo Grigory Yefimovich Grum-Grshimailo (, 1860–1936) was a Russian zoologist best known for his expeditions to Central Asia ( Pamir, Bukhara, Tianshan, Gansu, and Kukunor), western Mongolia and Tuva, and the Russian Far East. In literature his na ...

in 1891. It is found in the high mountains of

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Description

The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

is 22–27 mm.

Taxonomy

first described this species from

Qinghai Qinghai is an inland Provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. It is the largest provinces of China, province of China (excluding autonomous regions) by area and has the third smallest population. Its capital and largest city is Xin ...

, China, using the scientific name ''Dasychira alpherakii'' in 1891. The

species epithet Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany) ...

commemorates

Sergei Alphéraky Sergei Nikolaevich Alphéraky (also Alferaki; ; 14 April 1850 – ) was a Greek-Russian ornithologist and entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera. Sergei Alphéraky was born in Kharkov into the noble Greek family of Alferakis. He was the bro ...

, a Greek Russian

entomologist Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

from

Taganrog Taganrog (, ) is a port city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, on the north shore of Taganrog Bay in the Sea of Azov, several kilometers west of the mouth of the Don (river), Don River. It is in the Black Sea region. Population: Located at the site of a ...

who spent the latter part of his life studying the

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organ ...

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

and

East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...

. The following year, in 1892,

William Forsell Kirby William Forsell Kirby (14 January 1844 – 20 November 1912) was an English entomologist and folklorist. He specialized in the study of the stick insects, describing nearly 70 species and 22 genera. His collection filled 120 cabinets and clai ...

moved it to the genus ''Dasorgyia''. In 1910

Embrik Strand Embrik Strand (2 June 1876 – 3 November 1947) was an entomologist and arachnologist who classified many insect and spider species, including the greenbottle blue tarantula. Life and career Strand was born in Ål, Norway. He studied at t ...

moved it to the genus '' Gynaephora'', where it was eventually placed in the

subgenus In biology, a subgenus ( subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between the ge ...

''Dasorgyia'', with as

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

''G. pumila'', by Douglas C. Ferguson in 1978, and Karel Spitzer in 1984. ''G. pumila'' was moved to '' Dicallomera pumila'' in 2008 by Tatyana A. Trofimova, who was then obliged to look into the other species in the subgenus ''Dasorgyia'', and ended up moving all three to '' Lachana''. A DNA study published by Vladimir A. Lukhtanov and Olga Khruleva in 2015 found the species '' Gynaephora aureata'', ''G. jiuzhiensis'', ''G. menyuanensis'', ''G. minora'', ''G. qinghaiensis'', ''G. qumalaiensis'' and ''G. ruoergensis'' all to be closer related to ''Lachana alpherakii'' than to any of the other species of '' Gynaephora''. In 1984 Spitzer had suggested ''G. qinghaiensis'' was a synonym or a subspecies of ''G. alpherakii'', although he did not formally move the taxon. Trofimova also suggested in 2008 that ''G. qinghaiensis'', ''G. aureata'', ''G. ruoergensis'' and ''G. minora'', all described from China by Chou and Ying in 1979, are possibly synonyms of ''Lachana alpherakii'', although not having been able to study the type specimens, she was unable to say anything further.

Distribution

The species has been collected numerous times around the lake of

Koko Nor Qinghai Lake is the largest lake in China. Located in an endorheic basin in Qinghai Province, to which it gave its name, Qinghai Lake is classified as an alkaline salt lake. The lake has fluctuated in size, shrinking over much of the 20th centu ...

. In China it is known from the

provinces A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provi ...

, of

(near a place rendered as "Jecundo") and further from west to east, neighbouring

(including Koko Nur, Tianjun County), and

Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

(including

Ganzhou District Ganzhou District, formerly the separate city of Ganzhou or Kanchow, is a district in and the seat of the prefecture-level city of Zhangye in Gansu Province, China, bordering Inner Mongolia to the north and northeast. Ganzhou was an important out ...

, near

Lanzhou Lanzhou is the capital and largest city of Gansu province in northwestern China. Located on the banks of the Yellow River, it is a key regional transportation hub, connecting areas further west by rail to the eastern half of the country. His ...

and the

Xining Xining is the Capital (political), capital and most populous city of Qinghai province in western China and the largest city on the Tibetan Plateau. As of the 2020 census, it had 2,467,965 inhabitants (2,208,708 as of 2010), of whom 1,954,795 l ...

Mountains bordering Qinghai). There is also a doubtful record from much further west, in the

Pamirs The Pamir Mountains are a range of mountains between Central Asia and South Asia. They are located at a junction with other notable mountains, namely the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, Hindu Kush and the Himalaya mountain ranges. They are among ...

Ecology

It is known from mountains at extremely high altitudes, having been collected or observed at elevations of 3000-4500m. The larvae feed on ''

Elaeagnus angustifolia ''Elaeagnus angustifolia'', commonly called Russian olive, silver berry, oleaster, or wild olive, is a species of ''Elaeagnus'', native to Asia and limited areas of eastern Europe. It is widely established in North America as an introduced specie ...

''. It is the primary host species for the

parasitoid In evolutionary ecology, a parasitoid is an organism that lives in close association with its host (biology), host at the host's expense, eventually resulting in the death of the host. Parasitoidism is one of six major evolutionarily stable str ...

is the eulophid wasp '' Sympiesis qinghaiensis'' of the subfamily Eulophinae in

References

Moths described in 1891 Lymantriinae Taxa named by Grigory Grum-Grshimailo Moths of Asia {{Lymantriidae-stub