Gynaephora is a genus of "tussock moths", also known as the Lymantriinae, within the family Erebidae.[1][4] They are mainly found in the Holarctic in alpine, Arctic and Subarctic regions, and are best known for their unusually long larval development period. The life-cycle of Gynaephora groenlandica was once believed to take fourteen years, but subsequent studies reduced it to seven, still a very slow development rate that is extremely rare in the Lepidoptera. The caterpillars have five instars, with each instar lasting a year.[5]
The European species Gynaephora selenitica was the first described (as Phalaena selenitica). It was moved to Gynaephora by Jakob Hübner in 1819[2] and subsequently designated as type species by William Forsell Kirby in 1892.[6][7] In Kirby's time there were three species recognised in the genus: G. selenitica, G. pluto (now Xylophanes pluto) and G. xerampelina (now Aroa xerampelina).[7]
Laria rossii had been described by Curtis from the Canadian archipelago in 1835,[8] but in 1870 Heinrich Benno Möschler moved it to the genus Dasychira.[9] In 1874 a second Arctic Dasychira species was described by Maximilian Ferdinand Wocke from northern Greenland: D. groenlandica.[10] In 1927 William Schaus moved both to the genus Byrdia.[11]
Dasychira pumila was described by Otto Staudinger in 1881. He also commented that he found this new taxon distinctive enough to be classified in a new genus, which he provisionally suggested naming Dasyorgyia. William Forsell Kirby validated this name in 1882, classifying a number of species as Dasyorgyia,[3] and in 1901 Staudinger published the species under the name Dasyorgyia pumila along with four other species: D. alpherakii, D. grumi, D. selenophora and D. semenovi.[3][12] Embrik Strand in 1910[3] or 1912,[13][14] and Felix Bryk in 1934 followed Staudinger, but in 1950 Igor Vasilii Kozhanchikov moved D. pumila to Gynaephora, and also named a new species G. sincera. In 1978 these and two other species, G. alpherakii and G. selenophora, were classified by Douglas C. Ferguson in a subgenus using Otto Staudinger's 1881 alternative name Dasyorgyia with as type species G. pumila.[3]
Chou Io and Ying Chiang-Chu described four new species from China in 1979: G. aureata, G. minora, G. qinghaiensis and G. ruoergensis, with their paper written in Chinese.[14]
In 1984 Karel Spitzer reviewed the genus, recording three species in the genus sensu stricto (the nominate subgenus Gynaephora): G. groenlandica, G. rossii and G. selenitica. In subgenus Dasyorgyia he classified seven species: G. alpherakii, G. aureata, G. minora, G. pumila, G. qinghaiensis, G. selenophora and G. sincera, having synonymised G. ruoergensis with G. selenophora[14] (now Lachana selenophora).