Lucanus planeti Planet, 1899

A quite common species that found from Thailand, Vietnam and South China (Yunnan, Shichuan, Guangxi); they are very varietal in body size. It close to Lucanus vitalisi and Lucanus laminifer but clearly difference in structure of clypeus.

 

 
Male of Lucanus planeti Planet, 1899

Cheirotonus, Long arm beetles from Vietnam

Cheirotonus is a genus of Euchiridae or some author keep them in subfamily of Melolonthidae or subfamily Euchirinae of Scarabaeidae. Their English name is long arm beetle and in Vietnamese, they are called "Cua Bay" with meaning is flying craps, anyway, the name of the genus because of their very long fore legs. In Vietnam there are four species of the genus, three of them with mun-ti spots on the elytra: Cheirotonus battareli, Cheirotonus gestroi and Cheirotonus parryi and the remain with dark green elytra: Cheirotonus jansoni. 

The species Cheirotonus parryi is the first species that named for science of the genus, its name honor to Major Frederick John Sidney Parry who was a British Army Solder and an entomologist of Entomological Society of London and Linnae Society as well. He was an specialist of Coleoptera, particularly Lucanidae. In Vietnam the species Cheirotonus parryi  has been found from Southern Forests: Cat Tien National Park, Dong Nai Province.

Male of Cheirotonus parryi with long medial spine of fore legs.

Two other yellow spotted elytra species is Cheirotonus battareli and Cheirotonus gestroi. The species Cheirotonus battareli have been found only from North Vietnam: Sa Pa (Lao Cai), Van Ban (Yen Bai), Tay Con Linh (Ha Giang), Mau Son (Lang Son), Pia Oac (Cao Bang), Tam Dao (Vinh Phuc), Pu Mat (Nghe An)... and the later species Cheirotonus gestroi maybe distributes in South Center of Vietnam: Kon Tum, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Lam Dong. They are very similar each other but difference from Cheirotonus parryi in the medial spine of fore legs (shorter). In Cheirotonus gestroi, the lobe of medial spine of fore femur without teeth but there are some teeth on it of Cheirotonus battareli. 

 

Male of Cheirotonus battareli

Male of Cheirotonus gestroi

In 1994, Muramoto published a paper with description of Cheirotonus fujiokai from China, near Vietnam border (Ha Giang Province). The question if Cheirotonus fujiokai can be found from Vietnam has not been answered, however this small size species very similar to Cheirotonus gestroi but difference from both Cheirotonus gestroi and Cheirotonus battareli in medio-lateral shallows depression of pronotum of male: in Cheirotonus fujiokai, the area just finely punctured but it is deeply punctured in two previous species. 

Male of Cheirotonus fujiokai (from original description)

Male of Cheirotonus jansoni

Prismognathus and Eligmondontus from North Vietnam

In 1997, Haruo Ikeda described three new species of Prismognathus from North Vietnam on Gekkan-Mushi, a Japanese entomological journal. They are small size Lucanidae beetles and only found from in high elevation forests. Recently, DNA studies showed that they are closed to Lucanus genus. In this group, before Ikeda's publication, there had been only Eligmondontus kanghianus Didider & Seguy, 1953 that recorded for Vietnamese fauna.

Eligmodontus kanghianus from Lao Cai Province (Sa Pa) (scanned picture from Ikeda's description)

In his paper, except species P. katsurai that found from Cao Bang Province, type specimens of two species P. siniaevi and P. miyashitai found from Sa Pa, Lao Cai Province. Name of the species P. katsurai was honored to a Japanese collector, Mr. Nobuhiko Katsura who still is collecting insect from Vietnam until now; Mr. Victor Siniaev and Mr. Tetsuo Miyashita were honored in two remain species.

Species E. kanghianus and P. siniaevi later also recorded from Pia Oac Mountain, Cao Bang Province but P. miyashitai seem quite rare and only found from Sa Pa, Lao Cai Province in Vietnam.

Prismognathus miyashitai (male holotype and female paratype) in the original description.

Holotype of Prismognathus siniaevi (from original description)

Holotype (large male) and paratype (small male) of Prismognathus katsurai with a remarkable horn of eye canthus (from original description)

There is an interesting part of the description, all the holotype and paratype of three new species were deposited in private collections, not any public collection (Museum or Public collection). It is not to much problem in this case of Prismognathus because it is not too hard to find that three species in locality of holotype. Many taxonomial journals now ask the author deposite the holotype in a public collection before accept the manuscript, then it will help other researchers can access or study the holotype without private problems; particularly if we can not finding the species in locality of type specimens.

Actias chapae bezverkhovi Sochivko & Ivshin, 2008

This species is one of the most beautiful moth of Saturniidae family that found from Vietnam with very long tails of the hind wings.  The species was described based on material that collected from Sa Pa (as its name, Chapa), Lao Cai Province.

Since 2008, two subspecies of Actias chapae have been found: A. chapae chapae and A. chapae bezverkhovi. The previous subspecies distributed in North Vietnam and South of China and the later is only found from South Vietnam. They are high elevation moths and live in pristine forests with high level of humidity. A. chapae bezverkhovi be in mature form in April to October duration of the year. The subspecies was record in 2 provinces, Lam Dong and Dak Lak.

Male, photographed by Cuong Do, Chu Yang Sin National Park, Dak Lak

Atrocalopteryx laosica Fraser, 1933

Species name is specified the locality of holotype which was recorded from Laos.

                                               

A large size damselfly, the body is shining metallic green. The legs are slim with long spin rows. In the sunlight, the body reflects from metallic red-green to blue-green in colour. Two pairs of wing always fold up above the abdomen; they are red-black and darker than those of Atrocalopteryx coomani. The abdomen is somehow flattened in dorsal-ventral side.

The mature forms fly at opened but clear streams with rich of oxygen on highlands of west-north of Vietnam. The damselflies usually appear from middle to the end of rain season with high humidity. They are not very active insects and often perch on vegetation near the water.

Male, photographed by Cuong Do, Lao Cai

Caliphaea confusa Hagen in Selys, 1859

This species was recorded the by Asahina from North Vietnamese forests in 1995. Dumon 2005, analysed the ITS and Ribosome gene area of members of Caloptera and the result showed that genome type of Caliphaea is not close to it of Noguchiphaea as their structure of their wing venation.

It is a small size calopterid damselfly. The synthorax is shining metallic green with yellowish marking, the abdomen is slim and shining metallic green with end segments usually are pruinose on dorsal side. Their wings are hyaline or amber hyaline, slightly petiolate at base and always are folded at rest; the pterostigma is always present.

They are rare species but common locally, live in pristine forests of Limestone Mountains in the North of Vietnam. Both male and female are weak flying and they usually rest on vegetations around their breeding sites. Larvae of the species live in clear, fast running streams with high concentrate of oxygen and covered by vegetation.

Male, photographed by Cuong Do, Hoang Lien National Park, Sa Pa, Lao Cai Province

Archineura hetaerinoides (Fraser, 1933)

The species is a heavy built damselfly, and it is one of the biggest zygopteran. The body is variable from dark green to copper and there are pruinose patches on the synthorax and the abdomen. Their wings are hyaline with smoky patch at base. In the mature forms, the wings somehow to be light orange and look dust. Male and female are not dimorphism so they look similar and female is distinct with her robust abdomen.

They live in open clear and swift streams of secondary forests of high land in the North of the country with elevation over 700m. Mature forms do not fly far from their breeding habitats and the male keeps his territory even in rain. Individuals of both sexes perch not so high above of the water surface, usually they rest on rocks or water plants near the flowing water. 

Male just above the water, photographed by Cuong Do, Lao Cai Province

Necydalis from North Vietnam

Necydalis is very interesting genus of long horn beetles (Cerambycidae), very diversity in Indochina area. They belong to Lepturinae subfamily, some authors arrange them as a distinguish subfamily, Necydalinae. They are tiny beetles with a short elytron and the hyaline hind wings appear clearly so they look like wasps.

In nature, they are really perfect mimic beetles and under sun light, they look same to small wasps, not only the wings but also the abdomen. The reason for many kind of cerambicidae beetles "want to be" look like a wasp maybe because most of them are flower beetles, and wasp is a good subject around flower for mimicking, poisonous insects. So if you are not poisonous, you still can be an creature that look like poisonous, at least it helps you alive.

They are day flying insects and the best method to collect them is summit collecting during sunny days. With a big insect net, waiting at the top of mountains, above of the canopy of the tropical forests, collectors can catch them as they fly up with the wind. Because of small size and fast flying, they are not easy to be catch, particularly in a shining sunny day, they seem are invisible insects flying with hyaline hind wings.

Male of Necydalis alpinicola Nisanto et Ohbayashi 2003 (scan from the original description), this species found from Sa Pa, Lao Cai Province.

Male of Necydalis araii Niisato 1998 (dorsal view)

Male of Necydalis araii Niisato 1998 (ventral view)

Necydalis concolor Niisato et Ohbayashi  2004 is stout species with black body in color, they found from Tam Dao National Park, North Vietnam.

Male of Necydalis shinborii shinborii Takakuwa et Niisato 1996 (dorsal view)

Male of Necydalis shinborii shinborii Takakuwa et Niisato 1996 (ventral view)

There are two subspecies of of N. shinborii, N. s. shinborri found from Tam Dao National Park and N. s. hainana found from Hainan, China as its name.

Male of Necidalis choui Nisanto, 2004 (dorsal view)

Male of Necidalis choui Nisanto, 2004 (ventral view)

This species maybe new record for Vietnam fauna, it be found from Yen Bai this year (2014), it has been known as a Chinese species, beautiful and rare species.

Atrocalopteryx fasciata Yang, Hamalainen & Zhang, 2014

The new species of very beautiful Caloptera damselfly was found from Yunnan, collected by the first author of the species, be confirmed by second and third author.

The new species is close to its related species Atrocalopteryx laosica that was recorded from Laos and Vietnam. They are easy separated by the differnce of wing color marking, A. laosica has darker wings while A. fasiata has clear part at wing apex and base.

Calopterygidae is one of the most colorful insect group among Odonata order, Matti Hamalainen (third author of the species) is the world expert of this group, Haomiao Zhang (the second author) is young actives odonatologist who interested in many groups of Odonata, he found many new species of Odonata from China.

Atrocalopteryx fasciata, holotype from the original description

Atrocalopteryx laosica, taken by Cuong Do in Sa Pa, Lao Cai Province, North Vietnam (29.VII.2006)