''Nephele hespera'', the crepuscular hawkmoth, is a
sphingid moth described by
Johan Christian Fabricius in 1775.
Distribution
It is found in the
tropical and
subtropical
The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Geographical z ...
forests of
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
,
India,
Nepal,
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
, southern
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 ...
,
Thailand,
Vietnam,
Malaysia and
Indonesia.
Description
Head, thorax and abdomen olive brown or green. Abdomen is with lateral black segmental bands. Forewings are olive brown or green, with six faint waved lines and an angled submarginal line. The space between it and outer margin is paler. At the end of the cell, there are two conspicuous silvery-white spots, which may be reduced to a speck or be altogether obsolete. Hindwings are reddish brown and cilia are ochreous. Ventral side is paler, each wing with two transverse lines. Larva is greenish with a pale stripe from 7th to 11th somites.
Nephele hespera MHNT CUT 2010 0 141 Sumatra male dorsal.jpg, Male dorsal view
Nephele hespera MHNT CUT 2010 0 141 Sumatra male ventral.jpg, Male ventral view
Nephele hespera MHNT CUT 2010 0 141 Sumatra female dorsal.jpg, Female dorsal view
Nephele hespera MHNT CUT 2010 0 141 Sumatra female ventral.jpg, Female ventral view
Biology
The larvae feed on ''
Carissa congesta
''Carissa spinarum'', the conkerberry or bush plum, is a large shrub of the dogbane family ( Apocynaceae), widely distributed in tropical regions of Africa, Southern Asia, Australia, and various islands of the Indian Ocean. It is most well kno ...
''. Pupa is bone yellow in color. The moth rests with the wings held horizontal and the tip of the abdomen slightly upturned.
References
Nephele (moth)
Moths described in 1775
Taxa named by Johan Christian Fabricius
Moths of Sri Lanka
Moths of Indonesia
Moths of Malaysia
{{Macroglossini-stub