''Marumba sperchius'' is a species of
moth of the family
Sphingidae first described by
Édouard Ménétries
Édouard Ménétries ( Paris, France, 2 October 1802 – St. Petersburg, Imperial Russia, 10 April 1861) was a French entomologist, zoologist, and herpetologist. He is best known as the founder of the Russian Entomological Society.
Ménétries ...
in 1857.
Distribution
It is found from north-western and north-eastern
India, south-western, central and eastern
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
to the southern
Russian Far East,
North Korea,
South Korea and
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
. It is also present on
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 ...
and
Borneo.
Description
The
wingspan is 88–138 mm. It is similar to ''
Marumba juvencus
''Marumba juvencus'' is a species of moth of the family Sphingidae first described by Walter Rothschild and Karl Jordan in 1912.
Distribution
It is known from Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo. The habitat consists of lowland fore ...
'', but the lines of the forewing and the ground colour of the hindwing are more reddish and the lines on either side of the weak discal spot are hardly converge.
Marumba sperchius MHNT CUT 2010 0 120 Taiwan female dorsal.jpg, Female, dorsal view
Marumba sperchius MHNT CUT 2010 0 120 Taiwan female ventral.jpg, Female, ventral view
Marumba sperchius MHNT CUT 2010 0 120 Gifu Japan male dorsal.jpg, Male, dorsal view
Marumba sperchius MHNT CUT 2010 0 120 Gifu Japan Male ventral.jpg, Male, ventral view
Biology
There are two generations per year with adults on wing in April and again in August in northern China. In Korea, adults are on wing from late May to late August.
The larvae have been recorded feeding on ''
Castanea
The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.
The name also refers to the edible nut (fruit), nuts they produce.
Th ...
'' (including ''
C. crenata''), ''
Castanopsis'', ''
Quercus'' (including ''
Q. glauca'', ''
Q. mongolica'', ''
Q. acutissima'', ''
Q. myrsinaefolia'', ''
Q. acuta'', ''
Q. salicina'' and ''
Q. serrata''), ''
Castanea crenata'', ''
Juglans'' (including ''
J. regia'' and ''
J. mandschurica''), ''
Lithocarpus
''Lithocarpus'' is a genus in the beech family, Fagaceae. Trees in this genus are commonly known as the stone oaks and differ from ''Quercus'' primarily because they produce insect-pollinated flowers on erect spikes and the female flowers have ...
'' (including ''
L. edulis'') and ''
Eriobotrya'' species. Early
instars are pale yellow, while later instars turn bluish green with the tubercles brown or reddish, tipped with white. Oblique stripes are formed of mauve or yellow tubercles on a white ground. The horn is green with paler tubercles.
Subspecies
*''Marumba sperchius sperchius'' (from north-western India across north-eastern India, south-western, central and eastern China to the southern Russian Far East, North Korea, South Korea and Japan)
*''Marumba sperchius sumatranus''
Clark, 1923 (Sumatra, Borneo)
Marumba Sperchius Sumatranus MHNT CUT 2010 0 210 Sumatra female dorsal.jpg, Female ''M. s. sumatranus'', dorsal view
Marumba Sperchius Sumatranus MHNT CUT 2010 0 210 Sumatra female ventral.jpg, Female ''M. s. sumatranus'', ventral view
Marumba Sperchius Sumatranus MHNT CUT 2010 0 210 Sumatra male dorsal.jpg, Male ''M. s. sumatranus'', dorsal view
Marumba Sperchius Sumatranus MHNT CUT 2010 0 210 Sumatra male ventral.jpg, Male ''M. s. sumatranus'', ventral view
References
Marumba
Moths described in 1857
Moths of Japan
{{Smerinthini-stub