Acherontia, Death's head hawk moth

Acherontina, name of a genus of Sphigidae (Hawk moths), with original from the Greek Myth, Akheron or Acheron is naming of the river of pain/sorrow, it is a stream and swampy lake of the underworld and its god. The river, where daimon Kharon ferried souls of dead went across the black water of the river. So Kharon or Charon is the transporter the souls of dead across the river that between living world and the world of dead. 

They look somehow beautiful moths except the human's feeling about the shape of marking on their pronotum, look like a skull of man. There has not been true answer about why nature selection made that kind of shape on the moths but its scientific name fully with dead/death gods. Also in English and many other language, it is meaning death or death relation.

In Vietnam, there are two species of Acherontia: A. lachesis and A. styx, the previous somehow more common and larger and colorful than the later. They are quite common in high elevation mountain forests and strongly attracted insects by light, known as a mimic bee scent as well.

Acherontia lachesis, dorsal view

Acherontia styx, dorsal view

Chlorogomphus nakamurai Karube, 1995

This rare species has only been found in Cuc Phuong and Ba Vi National Parks, Vietnam, from where Haruki Karube described it in 1995. The dragonfly was named after Mr. Nakamura.

It is a beautiful and large-sized dragonfly; the male being deep black with bright yellow markings on the thorax and abdomen. The wings of the males are hyaline with the exception on the tips, while females have remarkable dark marking on their wings.

They are found at shaded, clear streams in the forest. The male usually patrols along the forest stream, looking for females, which only descend from the tree-canopies for mating and eggs laying. Once the female has found a suitable breeding side, the eggs are released directly to the surface of slow-flowing water.

The population of the species is stable in Cuc Phuong now, however no more record of its distribution in Ba Vi National Park, then it was accessed in VU level in IUCN Redlist because the limitation of distributed area.

Male of Chlorogomphus nakamurai, photographed by Cuong Do, Cuc Phuong National Park

Flying female of Chlorogomphus nakamurai, photographed by Cuong Do, Cuc Phuong National Park

Teinopalpus aureus from Vietnam

Teinopalpus aureus is a rare buttefly that found from high elevation forests. In Vietnam, there has been two subspecies of T. aureus, Teinopalpus aureus shinkaii and Teinopalpus aureus eminens. They are Papilionidae butterflies that listed as protected species.

The subspecies Teinopalpus aureus eminens was described by Turlin in 1991, the male holotype was collected from Dong Nai, South Vietnam (elevation is 1500m) and deposited in Nature History Museum, London, England. The subspecies later be found many high land area in South Vietnam: Di Linh and Bidoup National Park, Lam Dong Province, Dak Nong Province, Hon Ba Nature Reserve, Khanh Hoa Provicne. Recently the subspecies also was found in center of Vietnam (Vu Quang National Park, Ha Tinh Province).


Dorsal view of male of Teinopalpus aureus eminens, Dak Nong Province.

Mr. Shinkai collected materials of Teinopalpus aureus from Pia Oac Mountain, Cao Bang Province in 1995 and Tam Dao National Park, Vinh Phuc Province from 1990 - 1998. Based on the materials, Morita described the new species and named after Mr. Shinkai, the paper was published in 1998 with the hotoype is male specimen from Pia Oac, Cao Bang, this holotype is deposited in Morita's collection. Recent year, the subspecies also was recorded from Pu Mat, Nghe An Province, North Center of Vietnam.

A male of Teinopalpus aureus shinkaii Morita, 1998, dorsal view (Tam Dao National Park, Vinh Phuc Province)

Teinopalpus aureus shinkaii and Teinopalpus aureus eminens males can be separated by the shape of yellow triangle cell of the hind wings. The triangle cell of shinkaii is much more larger than it of eminens.

 
Triangle cells of hind wings of T. aureus shinkaii (left) and T. aureus eminens (right).

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.

Rhaetulus maii Maeda, 2009 and Dorcus cuongi Maeda, 2009

In 2009, Mr. Takeshi Maeda published a paper in which three new species of Lucanidae were described: Lucanus dongi, Rhaetulus maii and Dorcus cuongi.

All specimens of three species were collected from Kon Tum Province (misspelling as Contum in the paper) in 2008 by Mr. Nguyen The Dong, an insect catcher who lives in Tam Dao Town. The species Lucanus dongi and Dorcus cuongi has been confirmed of another locality in Quang Nam Province (in two year: 2013, 2014) while Rhaetulus maii has not been recorded from anywhere else except the locality of type series (Kon Tum Province).

Since three species was published, none of them has been recorded again or rediscovered from the locality of type specimens (Kon Tum Province), and the question about the true locality of the type specimens is still a mystery of science. However, they maybe all are endemic species of Vietnamese fauna.

There is an interesting story about the name of three species, they were name after members of Mr. Nguyen The Dong's family: Nguyen The Mai is Mr. Nguyen The Dong's father and Nguyen The Cuong is name of his son. "Mai", "Dong" and "Cuong" in Vietnamese are their fist name and they all belong to Nguyen family.

Takeshi Maeda is a Japanese entomologist and insect collector who had worked a long time in Vietnam, he also has a long previous co-working with Mr. Nguyen The Dong on Vietnamese stag beetle fauna. He can speak Vietnamese quite well. Now, he is working mainly in India-Myanmar fauna.

Type of series specimens of Rhaetulus maii (scan from the original description)

Type of series specimens of Dorcus cuongi (scan from the original description)

Tiger beetle, Cicidelidae

Cicidelidae is a family that consists of  small size insects and extremely active predators, they eat all kind of smaller insects that they catch. They found very close to ground with long legs, they mainly run very fast but also fly with fast speed in short distance. With very slender legs, they still are powerful insects with a pairs of large size and strong mandibles. Most of they are very colorful insects with metallic green, blue, red elytron as well as other parts of the body. Its name, tiger beetles maybe not only because they are very active predator but also because of the color marking of their body. Some members of the family are simple, neither colorful nor day flying insects, and being night hunters. 

Habitats of tiger beetles are very variable, they can be found not only in the forests, grass lands and some members live near the beach, running on the sand with slender legs, under sunshine. In Vietnam, tiger beetles fauna is quite rich and they can be found from the low elevation as beach to very high mountain areas (up to over 2000 m).

Collecting or take photo of this kind of beetle some time quite hard work (specially as you try to work during the day), they are very sensitive with light changing, wind or any movement. With a small net in fast speed is a good way to collect the day flying tiger beetles, however their bodies are very soft and their legs are very easy to be broken so a soft insect net are recommended to be used in collecting. 

Many of entomologists present the specimens of this species without pinning, they are better be glued on a card board with entomological water glue. Then the card board with the specimen will be pined in the entomological box with label.

A member of Cicindela sp. (maybe C. chienisis) photographed by Cuong Do in Bach Ma National Park, Thua Thien Hue Province

Epicopeia polydora (Wetwood, 1841) and mimicry of Papilio butterflies

Epicopeia polydora (Wetwood, 1841) is a moth that belong the family Epicopeiidae, they are day flying months. Most of moths are night active insects but some of them fly during the day, one of the well know and common day flying moth is insect of family Zyganidae. Members of Epicopeiidae are not variation as Zyganidae but they are very remarkable with their mimicry of Papilio butterflies. E. polydora has been found in North Vietnam and Thailand as well. They are typical Papilio mimic moth of Epicopeiidae, the wings are mainly deep black as many members of Papilio butterflies and the red, white, shining metallic blue marking on the wings are very similar to Papilio. Size of the moth also same as many large side Papilio. The hind wings of the Epicopeia also elongate when its folded partly, it will be same shape of the hind wing of swallow tail butterflies, Papilio. 

Epicopeida is easy to recognized to be a moth because the structure of their antenna, with comb shape, not slender as it of butterflies. However moth's enemies are not entomologists and they are not easy to separate a moth flying in the day with a Papilio, then to be a thing like Papilio, Epicopeida will not be attracted by predators that don't want to eat Papilio.

The day-flying moths also can be separated by the way and time of their flying, they seem slower than butterflies but normally fly higher than butterflies do.

Epicopeia polydora (Wetwood, 1841) (dorsal view)

Epicopeia polydora (Wetwood, 1841) (ventral view)

Some of black wings Papilio butterflies found from Vietnam:

Papilio elwesi Leech, 1889 This species have been found from North Vietnam and South China. 

Papilio protenor Fruhstorfer, 1908

Papilio paris Linaeus, 1758. 

Papilio memmon Linaeus, 1758

Papilio helenus Linaeus, 1758

Note: Three last Papilio were described by "the father of taxonomy", Carl Linaeus.

Weinreichius perroti Laxcroix, 1978

The genus Weinreichius consist of a single species Weinreichius perroti and this species has known as an endemic taxon from South of Vietnam, near Da Lat area. The distribution of the species has been recorded in high land area of Lam Dong Province, South Vietnam.

In general, this species quite similar to another Vietnamese endemic species, Yumikoi makii that only found from South Center of Vietnam. Mature forms of Weinreichius perroti mainly found from April to September during the year. Their habitat is mountain forests with elevation over 1000m.

Male of W. perroti in nature, Bidoup Nui Ba National Park, Lam Dong Province

Female of W. perroti in nature, Bidoup Nui Ba National Park, Lam Dong Province

Dorsal view of a male specimen

Atrocalopteryx auco Hamalainen, 2014

The species is described this year (2014) by Matti Hamalainen despite of the fact that we have seen it flying in nature since 2008.

In the field trip to Huu Lien, Lang Son Province, North Vietnam with the species author for finding Echo maxina, I saw that species in a source of the stream that I collected the species Nihonogomphus schorri. This is the third undescribed species be known to science in trips of Echo maxima, in Huu Lien, Lang Son (see the topic Trips of finding Echo maxima Martin, 1904, mystery of mysteries).

It is interesting that this unknown species be in Matti's collection quite long time but it only be focused since a fellow (Sebastien Delonglee) sent the author its photos from Huu Lien in 2013. In my photo gallery, I keep the photos in two separated folders: males in A. atrocyana and the female in A. coomani folders. I remember that I did take photos of the species among bamboos near the deep and clear stream that runs directly from limestone mountain. 

Matti Hamalainen as being informing the photos from Sebastien then found that it belong a distinguish species that difference from all known species then he described the species under the name: A. auco. He wrote in the etymological part of the description: "The species epithet auco is named after Âu Cơ, a character in the Vietnamese mythology. Âu Cơ was a young, beautiful mountain fairy who fell in love with Lạc Long Quân (the Dragon Lord of Lac). They married and she gave birth to an egg sac from which hatched a hundred children known collectively as the Bach Viet, the ancestors of the Vietnamese people. Âu Cơ is widely honoured as the mother of Vietnamese civilization." 

Before deciding the name of the species, Matti emailed to me about his idea of the name of the species and I did full agree with his very interesting idea, the colorful wings of this group matches very well to Âu Cơ, who is a pretty girl and she is well known to any Vietnamese people and this will make the species to be more familial to Vietnamese.

Male of A. auco (on a bamboo leaf above) photographed by Cuong Do, same date to the holotype in Huu Lien, Lang Son Province

Female of A. auco (among bamboos) with white pseudo-pterostigma that make I misidentified it to be A. coomani, photographed by Cuong Do, same date to the holotype in Huu Lien, Lang Son Province

Aeshnidae, Royal dragonfly family

Insects of the family are large to very large sized dragonflies and the number of member of known species reach to over 400 worldwide. The head with two large compose eyes, which are usually brighten green or blue in life, touching together as a line, the labia with weak permental cleft. The thorax is healthy and strong, often green or blue coloured with yellow marking. The wings are usually hyaline but in some species, they are suffused with smoky ochreous colour. Wings of males are, in many species, angulated at the base, the triangles of fore and hind wing are homologous, the 1A vein is pectinate basally. Their abdomen is long and commonly coloured marking. There usually are auricles on both lateral sides of the segment 2 and constricted at the segment 3 of the abdomen. The anal appendages are often long with fasten inferiors. The females possess well developed ovipositors with which they insert their eggs into plant tissue, moss on wet rocks, debris or tree trunks. Many species of the family are crepuscular or even partly nocturnal and some of them are attracted by the lights at night. Larvae are elongate and smooth with their labia long and flat; and they spend their time climbing among the jungle of water plants. They are found in stranding waters, backwaters of running streams or marshy waters with dead leaf layers.

Anax immaculifrons Rambur, 1842 photographed by Cuong Do, Bach Ma National Park, Thua Thien Hue

Polycantha erythromelas (McLachlan, 1896), the female is laying her eggs, hotographed by Cuong Do, Tam Dao National Park

Tetracanthagyna waterhousei McLachlan, 1898, male in dorsal view, photographed by Cuong Do, Quang Binh Province

Tetracanthagyna waterhousei McLachlan, 1898, male in lateral view, photographed by Cuong Do, Quang Binh Province

Tetracanthagyna waterhousei McLachlan, 1898, close up of male anal appendages in dorsal view, photographed by Cuong Do, Quang Binh Province