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LEPIDOPTERA

Aldania ilos Fruhstorfer, 1909
Aldania ilos Fruhstorfer, 1909

•TYPE LOCALITY. «?Amur-Gebiet» [?Amur region. Russia].

• RANGE. Amur and Ussuri regions; W. and NE. China, Taiwan.

•DISTRIBUTION AND VARIATION. It is the nominotypical subspecies that inhabits the territories concerned. From the adjacent parts, the ssp. nirei (Nomura, 1935) (Taiwan) and nise (Sugiyama, 1993) (W. China) are known.

•TAXONOMIC NOTES. Fruhstrofer (1909) regarded ilos as a subspecies of themis Leech, 1892. Kurentzov (1970) agreed with such a point of view. Recently, Koiwaya (1996) has considered ilos as a separate species with two subspecies, nise (Sugiyama, 1993) and nirei (Nomura, 1935), and Dubatolov (1997) shares this opin­ion. A study of the male genitalia confirms the specific independence of A. ilos. Soon after the original description of ilos, Frustrofer (1912) questioned the prove­nance of its type material, pointing out that it could have been collected in China. If correct, ilos may actually prove to be as a junior synonym of Neptis yunnana Oberthur, 1906, a taxon deriving from «Tseku» [Tse-Kou, Yunnan, China]. Unfortu­nately, we have not seen sufficiently rich material from China to solve the problem.

•HABITATS AND BIOLOGY. Broadleaved or mixed forests. Flight period: July to August.

•SIMILAR SPECIES. Aldania thisbe: with an additional blue touch or spot at distal end of subbasal blue stroke on UNH. A. deliquata: two or three blue touches at distal end of subbasal blue stroke on UNH.

Photo and text: Guide to the BUTTERFLIES OF RUSSIA and adjacent territories Volume 2. PENSOFT, Sofia - Moscow. 2000