[2] With a similar colouration and wing pattern, the imagines (adult moths) of the A. shanxiensis closely resemble those of A. hortulata, as which they might have been misidentified in the past.

Both species can be distinguished from each other by a number of genitalic features, such as the number of coils in the female ductus bursae and the male ductus ejaculatorius (eight coils in A. shanxiensis, seven in A. hortulata), the shape of the sella lobe and of its spinulose process, or the structure of the phallic rods.

Genetically, A. shanxiensis and A. hortulata are closely related: In the DNA barcoding fragment of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene, the species exhibit an average of 2.73% of interspecific Kimura two-parameter distance.

[1] Anania shanxiensis is distributed in the Chinese provinces of Beijing, Gansu, Guangdong, Guizhou, Hainan, Hebei, Henan, Jiangsu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan and Yunnan.

[1] The species epithet, shanxiensis, refers to the Chinese province Shanxi, where the type locality of the holotype is located.