Acherontia Styx

''Acherontia styx'', the lesser death's head hawkmoth or bee robber, is a sphingid moth found in Asia, one of the three species of death's-head hawkmoth. It is very fond of honey, and bee keepers have reported finding dead moths in their hives as a result of bee stings. They can mimic the scent of bees so that they can enter a hive unharmed to get honey. Their tongue, which is stout and very strong, enables them to pierce the wax cells of the beehive and suck the honey out. They are also known to be a pest of yuzu ('' Citrus junos'') in South Korea, using their tongue to pierce and damage the fruit.

Description

This species is similar to the European '' A. atropos'' but differs in having two medial bands on the underside of the forewing, instead of one, and usually no dark bands across the ventral surface of the abdomen. The skull-like marking is darker and there is a faint blue tornal dot enclosed by a black submarginal band on the hindwing upperside. The forewing discal spot (stigma) is orange; in ''A. atropos'' it is usually white.

There are two described subspecies, ''A. s. styx'' and ''A. s. medusa'' Moore, 1858, but they intergrade widely, and authorities presently consider that ''A. s. medusa'' is just a wet zone/season form and not taxonomically distinct.

Acherontia styx styx MHNT CUT 2010 0 36 Cambodge male dorsal.jpg, ''A. s. styx'' male
Acherontia styx styx MHNT CUT 2010 0 36 Cambodge male ventral.jpg, ''A. s. styx'' male underside
Acherontia styx styx MHNT CUT 2010 0 36 Ban Keum Laos Female dorsal.jpg, ''A. s. styx'' female
Acherontia styx styx MHNT CUT 2010 0 36 Ban Keum Laos Female ventral.jpg, ''A. s. styx'' female underside


Acherontia styx medusa MHNT Female Dorsal Akashi City .jpg, ''A. s. medusa'' dorsal side
Acherontia styx medusa MHNT Female ventral Akashi City.jpg, ''A. s. medusa'' underside
Deathshead hawkmoth cat.jpg, Caterpillar

In, ''The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma: Moths Volume I'', the species is described as follows.

Development

Eggs are laid primarily on Bignoniaceae, Fabaceae, Oleaceae, Pedaliaceae, Solanaceae and Verbenaceae. In India the larvae sometimes occur in such numbers as to cause serious damage to crops such as '' Sesamum indicum''. Mature larvae can be 120 mm long, and come in green, yellow or brown color forms. Larvae closely resemble those of ''A. atropos'' except that the dark blue dorsal speckling is more pronounced on the anterior half of each abdominal segment, and the tail horn is less curved and lacks a reflexed tip. Pupation occurs in an underground chamber, excavated less than 10 cm below the surface of the soil.

Distribution

The variant referred to as ''A. styx medusa'' occurs throughout eastern continental Asia, from northeastern China (where it is a migrant) and Japan, south through eastern China and Vietnam to Peninsular Malaysia and peninsular Thailand. It is also found throughout the islands of the Malay Archipelago. ''A. s. styx'' occurs from north-central and western China westward across northern Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan and Iran to Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan and Israel.

In popular culture

The species ''A. styx'' was featured in the 1991 film, '' The Silence of the Lambs''. In the film, the moths were captive-raised by serial killer Jame Gumb (portrayed by Ted Levine). In one scene, police performing a postmortem examination of a suspected female victim of Gumb was found to have a pupa of ''A. styx'' placed in her windpipe, with a pair of entomologists determining the species identity upon dissection and examination of the collected specimen.

References

External links

Sound recording of ''Acherontia styx'' at BioAcoustica

{{Taxonbar , from=Q134738

Acherontiini
Moths of Asia
Moths described in 1847
Taxa named by John O. Westwood