''Lachana sincera'' is a species of moth of the subfamily Lymantriinae. A single example was found in 1909 at high elevations in the Wakhan range of the

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

of Tajikistan and is only known to have seen again since in 1961. This was also in the area, making it provisionally endemic to southern

Gorno-Badakhshan Gorno-Badakhshan, officially the Badakhshan Mountainous Autonomous Region,, abbr. / is an autonomous region in eastern Tajikistan, in the Pamir Mountains. It makes up nearly forty-five percent of the country's land area, but only two perce ...

Taxonomy

It was named by Igor Vasilii Kozhanchikov as ''Gynaephora sincera'' in his 1950 compendium of the

Orgyiini The Orgyiini are a tribe of tussock moths of the family Erebidae. The tribe was described by Wallengren in 1861. Description Caterpillars of the group have brushes of hairs on the top of abdominal segments 1 (adjacent to the thorax), 2, 3, 4, an ...

moths of the USSR (which included these genera at the time). He based the species on a single male specimen collected by one O. John in the

in 1909. In 1984 Karel Spitzer believed this to be the only known example of the occurrence of this moth, apparently being unaware of two newer specimens collected in 1961. At this time Spitzer supposed it might be a synonym of ''

Lachana selenophora ''Lachana selenophora'' is a species of moth of the subfamily Lymantriinae. It is found in alpine habitats on the high mountains (from 1,000 to 3,600 meters) in Central Asia ( Tian-Shan, Pamiro-Alai and Hindu Kush). Description The wingspa ...

'', but being unable to examine the holotype, he was unable to be confident about the subject, but in any case he found it closely related to this species. Spitzer classified it within the

subgenus In biology, a subgenus (plural: 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 t ...

''Dasyorgyia'' of the genus ''

Gynaephora ''Gynaephora'' is a genus of "tussock moths", also known as the Lymantriinae, within the family Erebidae. They are mainly found in the Holarctic in alpine, Arctic and Subarctic regions, and are best known for their unusually long larval developme ...

'', in his treatment of that genus. The subgenus ''Dasyorgyia'' had as type species ''Gynaephora pumila'', when this taxon was moved by Tatyana A. Trofimova to ''

Dicallomera pumila ''Dicallomera pumila'' is a little seen species of moth of the family Erebidae found in mountains in Kazakhstan and in the southern Urals. Taxonomy Until this century, only four caterpillars of this species had ever been found. These were colle ...

'' in 2008, she was also obliged to move ''Lachana sincera'' as well as ''L. alpherakii'' and ''L. selenophora'' and to ''Lachana'' from the subgenus ''Dasyorgyia''. The holotype, and the two other specimens, are kept at the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg.

Description

The wingspan is about 24 mm.

Similar species

Kozhanchikov finds it most similar to ''

Lachana alpherakii ''Lachana alpherakii'' is a species of moth of the subfamily Lymantriinae first described by Grigory Grum-Grshimailo in 1891. It is found in the high mountains of Tibet and China. Description The wingspan is 22–27 mm. The head, thorax, a ...

'' and ''L. selenophora''. Spitzer theorised it might be synonymous with ''L. selenophora'', based solely on the description. Trofimova found the wing colour and pattern most similar to similar to that of ''L. ladakensis'' and ''L. selenophora'', differing most noticeably by the "clear zigzag bands".

Distribution

The first of the only specimens of this species ever found was collected on the 29th of June in 1909 at 3600m elevation at a location Kozhanchikov calls the Map Pass in the

. According to Trofimova the label on the specimen is spelled slightly differently and that it refers to the Mats River in the Wakhan Range in southern

in eastern Tajikistan. Wakhan Corridor

Two more males were collected 19 July 1961 at 3200 m elevation at a location called "Angoudar" in the mountains around the city of Khorugh, also in southern

. Its distribution is thus sandwiched between known populations of ''L. selenophora'' in central Afghanistan to the south and those to the north in the further stretches of the Pamirs.

Ecology

Practically nothing is known about the ecology, and larvae or females have never been seen. Males have been collected from late June to mid-July at high elevations of 3200 to 3600 m in mountain regions.

References

Moths described in 1950 Lymantriinae {{Lymantriidae-stub