''Heterosphecia tawonoides'', the oriental blue clearwing, is a moth of the family Sesiidae, in the genus ''

Heterosphecia ''Heterosphecia'' is a genus of moths in the family Sesiidae which is found from Borneo, Sumatra and South India. There are eight known species with few records, so consequently their conservation status is unknown. Species *''Heterosphecia bant ...

''. The sesiids are mimics, in general appearance similar to a

bee Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyly, monophyletic lineage within the ...

or wasp. This species was described in 2003 by Axel Kallies, from a specimen collected in 1887.

History

Skowron Volponi Heterosphecia tawonoides 2

''Heterosphecia tawonoides'' was originally identified from a single damaged specimen collected from an unknown site in

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

in 1887. It was kept in the Natural History Museum, Vienna, and described by Axel Kallies in 2003. In 2013, Marta Skowron Volponi of the University of Gdańsk refound the moth on a lowland dipterocarp forest river bank in Malaysia. It is likely that the moth gains some protection from predation by

Batesian mimicry Batesian mimicry is a form of mimicry where a harmless species has evolved to imitate the warning signals of a harmful species directed at a predator of them both. It is named after the English naturalist Henry Walter Bates, after his work on bu ...

. The moth has been seen at Kuala Tahan and two other locations in Pahang, Malaysia.

Distribution

It is known from

in Indonesia and Pahang in Malaysia.

References

Sesiidae Moths described in 2003 Moths of Malaysia Moths of Sumatra {{Sesiidae-stub