In 1910 Embrik Strand moved it to the genus Gynaephora, where it was eventually placed in the subgenus Dasorgyia, with as type species G. pumila, by Douglas C. Ferguson in 1978,[2] and Karel Spitzer in 1984.

[2] A DNA study published by Vladimir A. Lukhtanov and Olga Khruleva in 2015 found the species Gynaephora aureata, G. jiuzhiensis, G. menyuanensis, G. minora, G. qinghaiensis, G. qumalaiensis and G. ruoergensis all to be closer related to Lachana alpherakii than to any of the other species of Gynaephora.

[4] Trofimova also suggested in 2008 that G. qinghaiensis, G. aureata, G. ruoergensis and G. minora, all described from China by Chou and Ying in 1979, are possibly synonyms of Lachana alpherakii, although not having been able to study the type specimens, she was unable to say anything further.

In China it is known from the provinces, of Tibet (near a place rendered as "Jecundo") and further from west to east, neighbouring Qinghai (including Koko Nur, Tianjun County), and Gansu (including Ganzhou District, near Lanzhou and the Xining Mountains bordering Qinghai).

[2] It is the primary host species for the parasitoid is the eulophid wasp Sympiesis qinghaiensis of the subfamily Eulophinae in Qinghai.