''Epicopeia mencia'' is a
moth
Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...
in the family
Epicopeiidae
Epicopeiidae is a family of insects in the order Lepidoptera. They are known as oriental swallowtail moths as they closely resemble some oriental swallowtail butterflies (e.g. red-bodied swallowtails). Epicopeiidae have highly varied structure in ...
. It was described by
Frederic Moore
Frederic Moore FZS (13 May 1830 – 10 May 1907) was a British entomologist and illustrator. He produced six volumes of ''Lepidoptera Indica'' and a catalogue of the birds in the collection of the East India Company.
It has been said that Mo ...
in 1875. It is found in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
,
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
,
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
, the
Russian Far East
The Russian Far East (russian: Дальний Восток России, r=Dal'niy Vostok Rossii, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is admini ...
,
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
and
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
.
The
wingspan
The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...
is about 60 mm. Adults can be distinguished from related species by two rows of red markings on the hindwings. There are two forms in both sexes, a typical form and a white-banded form (''var. leucorrhea''). The typical form is thought to mimic ''
Byasa alcinous
''Byasa alcinous'', the Chinese windmill, is a butterfly of the family Papilionidae.
Description
''Byasa alcinous'' has a wingspan reaching about . The basic colour of the wings is black or dark brown. The hindwings have long tails and a chain o ...
'', while the latter form mimics ''
Pachliopta aristolochiae
''Pachliopta aristolochiae'', the common rose, is a swallowtail butterfly belonging to the genus ''Pachliopta'', the roses, or red-bodied swallowtails. It is a common butterfly which is extensively distributed across south and southeast Asia.
R ...
''.
The larvae feed on ''
Ulmus
Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of Nor ...
'' species. There is one generation per year. The species overwinters in the pupal stage.
Study on the bionomics of ''Epicopeia mencia'' and its control
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Gallery
Image:Epicopeia mencia (7887994430).jpg
Image:Epicopeia mencia (9578264810).jpg
Image:Epicopeia mencia (9578486970).jpg
References
Moths described in 1875
Epicopeiidae
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