Khantao talpoides
Live specimen © Yu et al. (2026, fig. 1) — living holotype female KYUARA#1791. Photo: Kun YuType Locality and Records
Original Description
Distribution
Type Locality: CHINA: Yunnan: Dehong, Lianghe County, Jiubao Township, Sanjia Village
Adult Male Activity
Collection months of 1 adult male specimen record, against the rainfall where they live
Mean monthly rainfall and temperature 2001–2020 near where these males were collected, China. MERRA-2 via NASA POWER, for a grid cell averaging 1358 m. Northern hemisphere seasons.
Etymology
Latin adjective meaning "mole-like", for the impression the species gave the first author.
Specimen Records (3)
Holotype female of Khantao talpoides, and the name-bearing type of the genus. Photographed alive.
Paratype male of Khantao talpoides; source of the palpal bulb figures.
Paratypes of Khantao talpoides: one female collected 27 October 2024 and three males in July 2025.
Taxonomic History
- 2026 Khantao talpoides Yu, von Wirth, West, Zhang & Zhang, 2026 — type species of Khantao.
- The genus is named for the Xiandao people of Dehong in Yunnan, who call themselves /kʰan³¹ tao³¹/. A sub-group of the Achang, they number fewer than a hundred, concentrated in two border villages of Yingjiang County, and their unwritten Xiandao language is close to functional extinction.
- Yu et al. left the tribal placement of Khantao deliberately unassigned: it matches the putative synapomorphies of no established selenocosmiine tribe, and neither their cladistic analysis nor unpublished molecular data placed it in one. They say the question should wait until Selenocosmiinae is revised.