''Cephonodes hylas'', the coffee bee hawkmoth, pellucid hawk moth or coffee clearwing, is a

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

of the family

Sphingidae The Sphingidae are a family of moths (Lepidoptera) called sphinx moths, also colloquially known as hawk moths, with many of their caterpillars known as “hornworms”; it includes about 1,450 species. It is best represented in the tropics, but ...

. The species was first described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...

in 1771. A widely distributed moth, it is found in the Near East,

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

, Africa,

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, Sri Lanka, Japan,

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...

and Australia.

Description

It has transparent wings and a stout body like a bumble bee. Its

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan o ...

of 45–73 mm. Its marginal borders are very narrow and black. Abdomen varies in colour from yellow to green. Nominate subspecies has bright reddish 3rd and 4th abdominal segments. Larva have two colour forms, green and blackish. In greenish form, body greenish with a white-bordered blue dorsal line and whitish sub-dorsal line ending in a yellow streak at base of horn. Head and spiracles are blue. In the dark-coloured form, head brown or pale orange and rest of body smoky black. Pupa dark brown. Pellucid hawk moth , feeding on Lantana camara flowers

Pellucid hawk moth , feeding on Lantana camara flowers

Cephonodes hylas hyles MHNT CUT 2010 0 138 Pokhara Nepal male dorsal.jpg, Dorsal male
(from the collection of the MHNT) Cephonodes hylas hyles MHNT CUT 2010 0 138 Pokhara Nepal male ventral.jpg, Ventral male
(coll. MHNT) Cephonodes hylas hyles MHNT CUT 2010 0 138 Mae Tha Lamphun Thailand female dorsal.jpg, Dorsal female
(coll. MHNT) Cephonodes hylas hyles MHNT CUT 2010 0 138 Mae Tha Lamphun Thailand female ventral.jpg, Ventral female
(coll. MHNT)

Ecology

Larvae are sluggish but eat very greedily and continuously. Its larvae feed on '' Burchellia'', '' Gardenia'', ''

Kraussia ''Kraussia'' is a flowering plant genus in the family Rubiaceae. Apart from a species in Socotra, they are native to continental Africa. The type was described from a plant collected by Dr. F. Krauss near Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwin ...

'', ''

Pavetta ''Pavetta'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It comprises about 360 species of trees, evergreen shrubs and sub-shrubs. It is found in woodlands, grasslands and thickets in sub-tropical and tropical Africa and Asia. The plan ...

'' and ''

Vangueria ''Vangueria'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. The genus is named for , as '' V. madagascariensis'' is known in Malagasy. Distribution The genus contains over 50 species distributed in Africa south of the Sahara with one ...

'' species. Parasitoids such as '' Ooencyrtus papilionis'' and '' Blepharipa zebrine'' are found on larva.

Subspecies

*''Cephonodes hylas hylas'' - (Linnaeus 1771) (Sri Lanka to China and Japan) *''Cephonodes hylas australis'' - Kitching & Cadiou, 2000 (Australia) *''Cephonodes hylas melanogaster'' - Cadiou, 1998 (Indonesia) *''Cephonodes hylas virescens'' - (Wallengren, 1865) (Ethiopian Region including Madagascar and the Seychelles) File:Cephonodes hylas (Bee hawkmoth) on Catunaregam spinosa W IMG 9507.jpg, ''Cephonodes hylas'' larvae on ''

Catunaregam spinosa ''Catunaregam spinosa'', the mountain pomegranate, is a flowering plant in the family Rubiaceae, found in South Asia and other Asian countries. Almost all parts of the plant are used as a traditional medicine in Ayurveda and fruits have been repo ...

'' in

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India ...

, India File:Cephonodes hylas (Bee hawkmoth) on Catunaregam spinosa W IMG 9509.jpg, ''Cephonodes hylas'' larvae on ''Catunaregam spinosa'' in Hyderabad File:Cephonodes hylas (Bee hawkmoth) on Catunaregam spinosa W IMG 9506.jpg, ''Cephonodes hylas'' larvae on ''Catunaregam spinosa'' in Hyderabad File:Cephonodes hylas (Bee hawkmoth) on Catunaregam spinosa W IMG 9469.jpg, ''Cephonodes hylas'' larvae on ''Catunaregam spinosa'' in Hyderabad File:Pellucid hawk moth.JPG, Pellucid hawk moth in

Bangalore Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...

, India

References

Cephonodes Moths described in 1771 Moths of Africa Moths of Japan Moths of Madagascar Moths of the Middle East Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Dilophonotini-stub