Mimathyma nycteis (Ménétriès, 1859)

(Fig. 5)

Atyma [sic] nycteis Ménétriès, 1859: 215 [Type locality: “l’embouchure de l’Oussouri” (= Ussuri region)].

Neptis nycteis: Fixsen, 1887: 295 (first record from Korea).

Apatura nycteis: Leech, 1893: 155; Staudinger and Rebel, 1901: 21; Stichel, 1908: 164; Nire, 1918: 95; Nakayama, 1932: 379; Mori et al., 1934: 31 (Apature [sic]); Kishida and Nakamura, 1936: 517; Seok, 1939b: 61; Seok, 1942: 87; Seok and Umitatsu, 1942: 186; Kim and Mi, 1956: 396; Seok, 1973: 90.

Athymodes nycteis: Inomata, 1982: xviii; Lee, 1982: 75; Korshunov and Gorbunov, 1995: 73; Tuzov et al., 2000: 15.

Mimathyma nycteis: Masui and Inomata, 1991: 10; Chou, 1994: 431; Lee, 2005: 27.

Apatura nycteis f. furukawai Matsumura, 1931: 43 [Type locality: “Kainei”, North Korea].

Subspecies. The Korean populations are considered to belong to subsp. furukawai.

Adult. Active from mid June to mid August (one brood). Adults are readily observed in hilly areas where young food trees are dominant. Males are often encountered on the ground. In the afternoon, they move to tops of hills or mountains to sit on trees and engage in hilltopping. Females are attracted to fermenting fluids, especially fluxes issuing from oak trees.

Larval host plants. Ulmus davidiana var. japonica, Ulmus davidiana Planch., etc. (cf. Kim and Sohn 1992; Joo et al. 1997).

Life cycle. See Kim and Sohn (1992) and Harada and Igarashi (1993). Eggs are laid one by one on leaves of the host plants. Larvae are solitary. The 5th or rarely the 4th instar larvae hibernate on undersides of fallen leaves on the ground below the food plants.

Distribution. Northern and central Korea (locally distributed in mainland Korea, abundant in northern part and seldom in southern part, but not on adjacent islands), central and northeastern China and Far Eastern Russia.