Thubana xanthoteles is a species of moth

Moth

A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...

 of the Lecithoceridae

Lecithoceridae

Lecithoceridae is a family of small moths. Although lecithocerids are found throughout the world, the great majority are found in the Indomalaya ecozone and the southern part of the Palaearctic ecozone.-Systematics:...

 family. It is found in Yunnan

Yunnan

Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...

 in China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 and Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

.

Taxonomy

Meyrick described Thubana xanthoteles on the basis of two female specimens and described Thubana melitopyga from one female specimen. Clarke regarded Thubana melitopyga as a junior synonym of Thubana xanthoteles. Park described Thubana stenosis on the basis of specimens collected from north Thailand, which bears a “golden yellow bandlike costal patch” on the forewing. He also noticed that the female genitalia of Thubana stenosis are hardly distinguishable from those of Thubana xanthoteles. Later study concluded that the male genitalia of the three specimens collected in south Yunnan undoubtedly match with those of Thubana stenosis described by Park, and the female genitalia match with those of Thubana stenosis and of Thubana xanthoteles.

External links

• Review of the genus Thubana Walker (Lepidoptera, Lecithoceridae) from China, with description of one new species