Sphingidae 1

SphingidaeFor a complete species list of this family, see the Sphingidae species list.

Hawk moths

Hummingbird hawk mothMacroglossum stellatarum

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Lepidoptera

(unranked): Macrolepidoptera

Superfamily: Bombycoidea

Family: SphingidaeLatreille, 1802

Type species

Sphinx ligustriLinnaeus, 1758

Subfamilies

MacroglossinaeSmerinthinaeSphinginae

Diversity

About 200 genera,roughly 1,200 species

Sphingidae is a family of moths (Lepidoptera), commonly known as hawk moths, sphinx moths and hornworms,that includes about 1,200 species (Grimaldi & Engel, 2005). It is best represented in the tropics but there are speciesin every region (Scoble, 1995). They are moderate to large in size and are distinguished among moths for their rapid,sustained flying ability (Scoble, 1995). The narrow wings and streamlined abdomen are clearly adaptations for rapidflight.Some hawk moths, like the hummingbird hawk moth, hover in midair while they feed on nectar from flowers and aresometimes mistaken for hummingbirds. This hovering capability has evolved only three times in nectar feeders: inhummingbirds, certain bats, and these sphingids (Kitching, 2002) (an example of convergent evolution). Sphingidshave been much studied for their flying ability, especially their ability to move rapidly from side to side whilehovering, called 'swing-hovering.' It is thought that this evolved to deal with ambush predators that lie in wait inflowers (Kitching, 2002).Some of the sphingids are some of the fastest flying insects, capable of flying at over 50 km/h (30 miles per hour).They have a wingspan of 35-150 mm.

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Life cycle

Vine hawk moth larva (Hippotion celerio)

Most species are multivoltine, capable of producingseveral generations a year if weather conditions permit(Pittaway, 1993).

Eggs

Females lay translucent greenish, flattened, smootheggs (Scoble, 1995). Eggs are usually laid singly(Grimaldi & Engel, 2005) on the host plants (Pittaway,1993). Egg development time varies highly, from 3 to21 days (Pittaway, 1993).

Larvae

A Hyles gallii caterpillar seeking a place to pupate,the colour of the caterpillar darkens before pupation.

Sphingid caterpillars are medium to large in size, with stout bodies.They have 5 pairs of prolegs (Pittaway, 1993). Usually their bodieslack any hairs or tubercules, but most species have a "horn" at theposterior end (Scoble, 1995), which may be reduced to a button, orabsent, in the final instar (Pittaway, 1993). Many are cryptic greensand browns, and have countershading patterns to conceal them.Others are more conspicuously coloured, typically with white spotson a black or yellow background along the length of the body. A pattern of diagonal slashes along the side is acommon feature. When resting, the larva usually holds the legs off the surface and tucks its head underneath, whichgives rise to the name 'sphinx moth' (Pittaway 1993). Some tropical larvae are thought to mimic snakes (Scoble,1995). Larvae are quick to regurgitate their sticky, often toxic, foregut contents on attackers such as ants andparasitoids (Pittaway, 1993). Development rate depends on temperature, and to speed development some northernand high altitude species sunbathe (Pittaway, 1993). Larvae burrow into soil to go into chrysalis, where they remainfor 2-3 weeks before they emerge as adults.

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PupaeIn some sphingidae, the pupa has a free proboscis, rather than being fused to the pupal case as is most common inMacrolepidoptera (Scoble, 1995). They have a cremaster at the tip of the abdomen (Pittaway, 1993). Usually theypupate off the host plant, in an underground chamber, among rocks, or in a loose cocoon (Pittaway, 1993). In mostspecies, the pupa is the overwintering stage.

Adults

A Feeding Hawk Moth Olympiaki Akti (Greece)

Description

Antennae are generally not very feathery, even in the males (Scoble,1995). They lack tympanal organs but members of the tribeChoerocampini have hearing organs on their heads (Scoble, 1995).They have a frenulum and retinaculum to join hindwings andforewings (Scoble, 1995). The thorax, abdomen, and wings aredensely covered in scales. Sphingids may have a reduced proboscis,but most have a very long proboscis (Scoble, 1995). They use it tofeed on nectar from flowers. Most are crepuscular or nocturnal, butsome species fly during the day (Pittaway, 1993). Both males andfemales are relatively long-lived (living 10 to 30 days) (Pittaway,

1993). Prior to flight, most species shiver their flight muscles to warm them up, and, during flight, body temperaturesmay surpass 40°C (Pittaway, 1993) .

In some species, sexual dimorphism (differences in form between the sexes) is quite marked. For example, in theAfrican species Herse convolvuli (the Convolvulus or Morning Glory Hawk Moth), the antennae are thicker andwing markings more mottled in the male than in the female. Only males have both an undivided frenular hook and aretinaculum. Also all male hawk moths have a partial comb of hairs along their antennae. (Pinhey, 1962) Femalescall males to them with pheromones. The male may douse the female with a pheromone (Pittaway, 1993) beforemating.

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Behaviour

Some species fly only for short periods either around dusk or dawn, while other species only appear later in theevening and others around midnight. But such species may occasionally be seen feeding at flowers during the day.There are a few common species in Africa, such as Cephonodes hylas virescens (the Oriental Bee Hawk),Leucostrophus hirundo and Macroglossum trochilus, which are diurnal (Pinhey, 1962).

Food plants

Larvae

Bee Hawk moth (Cephonodes kingii), Crows Nest,New South Wales

Sphingid larvae tend to be specific feeders, rather than generalists(Pittaway, 1993). Compared to similarly sized saturniids, sphingidseat soft young leaves of host plants with small toxic molecules, andchew and mash the food into very small bits (Bernays & Janzen,1988). Some species can tolerate quite high concentrations ofspecific toxins. Tobacco hornworms, Manduca sexta, detoxify andrapidly excrete nicotine, as do several other related sphinx moths inthe subfamilies Sphinginae and Macroglossinae, but members ofSmerinthinae that were tested are susceptible (Wink & Thiele,2002). The species that are able to tolerate the toxin do notsequester it in their tissues; 98% was excreted. However, otherspecies, such as Hyles euphorbiae and Daphnis nerii do sequestertoxins from their hosts, but do not pass them on to the adult stage (Pittaway, 1993).

Adults

Hemaris thysbe or Hummingbird Clearwing Moth feeding

Most adults feed on nectar, although a few tropicalspecies feed on eye secretions and the Death's-headHawkmoth steals honey from bees (Pittaway, 1993).Night-flying sphingids tend to prefer pale flowers withlong corolla tube and a sweet odour, a pollinationsyndrome known as 'sphingophily' (Kitching, 2002).Some species are quite general in visitations, whileothers are very specific, with the plant only beingsuccessfully pollinated by a particular species of moth(Kitching, 2002). Orchids frequently have such specificrelations with hawkmoths, and very long corolla tubes.The Comet Orchid, Angraecum sesquipedale, a rareMalagasy flower with its nectar stored at the bottom ofa 30 cm long tube, was described in 1822 by Aubert du

Petit-Thouars, and later Charles Darwin famously predicted that there must be some specialised animal to feed fromit:

"[A. sesquipetale has] nectaries 11 and a half inches long, with only the lower inch and a half filled withvery sweet nectar [...] it is, however, surprising, that any insect should be able to reach the nectar: ourEnglish sphinxes have probosces as long as their bodies; but in Madagascar there must be moths withprobosces capable of extension to a length of between 10 and 12 inches!" (Darwin, 1862:197-198)

Sphingidae 5

Alfred Russel Wallace published a sort of "wanted poster" (properly, a drawing in a book) [1] of what this butterflymight look like, and, concurring with his colleague, added:

"[The proboscis of a hawkmoth] from tropical Africa ([Xanthopan] morganii) is seven inches and a half.A species having a proboscis two or three inches longer could reach the nectar in the largest flowers ofAngræcum sesquipedale, whose nectaries vary in length from ten to fourteen inches. That such a mothexists in Madagascar may be safely predicted, and naturalists who visit that island should search for itwith as much confidence as astronomers searched for the planet Neptune, – and they will be equallysuccessful." (Wallace, 1867)

Both founders of evolutionary theory were met with ridicule, but 21 years later, the hawkmoth in question was foundand described as a subspecies of the one mentioned by Wallace: Xanthopan morganii praedicta (Rothschild andJordan, 1903). Appropriately, the subspecific name praedicta ("the predicted one") commemorates Darwin's andWallace's prediction, but only the latter lived to see "their" hawkmoth being found and described, and the subspecieshas been subsequently declared as invalid.

Representative species

Oleander Hawk Moth (Daphnis nerii), Hooghly, West Bengal, India

There are around 1200 species of hawk moth, classifiedinto around 200 genera. Some of the best knownspecies are:• Privet hawkmoth (Sphinx ligustri)• Death's-head Hawkmoth (Acherontia atropos)• Lime Hawk-moth (Mimas tiliae)• Poplar Hawk-moth (Laothoe populi)• Catalpa Sphinx (Ceratomia catalpae)• Hummingbird hawk moth (Macroglossum

stellatarum)• Elephant hawk moth (Deilephila elpenor)• Vine hawk moth (Hippotion celerio)• Spurge hawk moth (Hyles euphorbiae)• Oleander hawk moth (Daphnis nerii)• Tomato worm (Manduca quinquemaculata)

In popular culture

John Linnell, of the rock band They Might Be Giants, reportedly wrote the song "Bee of the Bird of the Moth" (ontheir album The Else) after he saw a "hummingbird moth", presumably one of the members of this family thatresembles a hummingbird.[2]

Edgar Allan Poe includes a sphinx moth in his short story, "The Sphinx". The main character accidentally thinks thatthe moth on a window is a huge monster. Much to his surprise, his friend points out that it is in fact very close andnot on a hill in the distance.

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See also• Sphingidae species list• List of moths of India• List of moths of Great Britain (Sphingidae)

References• Bernays, E. A. & Janzen, D. H. (1988): Saturniid and Sphingid caterpillars - 2 ways to eat leaves. Ecology 69(4):

1153-1160. doi:10.2307/1941269 PDF fulltext [3]

• Darwin, Charles (1862): On the Various Contrivances by Which British and Foreign Orchids are Fertilised byInsects, and on the Good Effects of Intercrossing John Murray, London. HTML fulltext [4]

• Grimaldi, David & Engel, Michael S. (2005): Evolution of the Insects. Cambridge University Press. ISBN

0-521-82149-5

• Kitching, Ian J. (2002): The phylogenetic relationships of Morgan's Sphinx, Xanthopan morganii (Walker), thetribe Acherontiini, and allied long-tongued hawkmoths (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae, Sphinginae). Zool. J. Linn. Soc.135(4): 471-527. doi:10.1046/j.1096-3642.2002.00021.x (HTML abstract)

• Pittaway, A. R. (1993): The hawkmoths of the western Palaearctic. Harley Books & Natural History Museum,London. ISBN 0-946589-21-6

• Rothschild, Walter & Jordan, Karl (1903): A revision of the lepidopterous family Sphingidae. NovitatesZoologicae 9(Supplement): 1–972.

• Scoble, Malcolm J. (1995): The Lepidoptera: Form, Function and Diversity (2nd edition). Oxford UniversityPress & Natural History Museum London. ISBN 0-19-854952-0

• Wallace, Alfred Russel (1867): Creation by law. Quarterly Journal of Science 4: 470–488. HTML fulltext [5]

• Wink, M. & Theile, Vera (2002): Alkaloid tolerance in Manduca sexta and phylogenetically related sphingids(Lepidoptera: Sphingidae). Chemoecology 12: 29–46. doi:10.1007/s00049-002-8324-2 PDF fulltext [6]

• Pinhey, E (1962): Hawk Moths of Central and Southern Africa. Longmans Southern Africa, Cape Town.

External links• Sphingidae of the United States [7]

• Pictures [8]

• Australian Museum Fact Sheet - Hawk Moths [9]

• CATE-Sphingidae: a recently initiated project to produce a "one-stop shop" for Sphingidae taxonomy [10]

• CSIRO: Australian Moths Online - Sphingidae [11]

• ACG [12] Sphingidae of Costa Rica images.• List of Sphingidae Types [13] (Museum Witt München).• Flickr [14] Images, mosly excellent

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References[1] http:/ / perso. orange. fr/ cryptozoo/ dossiers/ xanthopan_wallace. jpg[2] http:/ / tmbw. net/ wiki/ Interpretations:Bee_Of_The_Bird_Of_The_Moth[3] http:/ / fusion. sas. upenn. edu/ caterpillar/ files/ related/ BernaysJanzenEat1988. pdf[4] http:/ / darwin-online. org. uk/ content/ frameset?itemID=F800& viewtype=text& pageseq=1[5] http:/ / www. wku. edu/ ~smithch/ wallace/ S140. htm[6] http:/ / www. uni-heidelberg. de/ institute/ fak14/ ipmb/ phazb/ pubwink/ 2002/ 29_2002. pdf[7] http:/ / www. silkmoths. bizland. com/ usatable. htm[8] http:/ / mothphotographersgroup. msstate. edu/ Files/ Live/ Living40F. shtml[9] http:/ / www. amonline. net. au/ Factsheets/ hawk_moths. htm[10] http:/ / www. cate-sphingidae. org/[11] http:/ / www. ento. csiro. au/ gallery/ moths/ Sphingidae[12] http:/ / janzen. sas. upenn. edu/ caterpillars/ chckradufam/ sphiadufam/ sph1. html[13] http:/ / www. insecta-web. org/ cgi-bin/ MWM/ db_typen/ display. pl?tname=family& fam=Sphingidae[14] http:/ / www. flickr. com/ search/ ?q=sphingidae

Article Sources and Contributors 8

Article Sources and ContributorsSphingidae  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=355016696  Contributors: Aksi great, Alansohn, Alexius08, Alvis, AshLin, Atmamatma, Auric, Azhyd, Ballista, Bjwebb,Bobblewik, CommonsDelinker, Comppsi, Dave souza, DirkvdM, Dyanega, Dysmorodrepanis, Edal, Fir0002, Gdr, Gerryfarm, Grendelkhan, Gurch, HenkvD, Henriok, IvanTortuga, J Di,JamesDouch, JerryFriedman, Jhs, Kaarel, Keith Edkins, Kolobok-123, Kugamazog, Kummi, Lazareth, Lonniehuffman, MPF, Maxim, Merphant, Midnightdreary, Mnemo, Mooncowboy,Noctilucatr, Notafly, Obli, Onesius, Oxymoron83, Pgan002, Philip Trueman, Pigsonthewing, Polinizador, Pollinator, Potatoswatter, Quadell, RattBoy, Richard Barlow, Robinh, Rosarinagazo,SP-KP, Sarefo, Satyrium, SchuminWeb, Sdr, Seb az86556, Seglea, Shyamal, Sindhu ramchandran, Smallweed, Snehalbhai, Stemonitis, Sugatabanerji, Svdmolen, Template namespaceinitialisation script, TheAlphaWolf, TheParanoidOne, Tigershrike, Tmol42, TwoOneTwo, UtherSRG, WikiWookie, Williamb, Wloveral, XcepticZP, Xufanc, Zebedeezbd, 65 anonymous edits

Image Sources, Licenses and Contributorsfile:IC Macroglossum stellatarum1 NR.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:IC_Macroglossum_stellatarum1_NR.jpg  License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike2.5  Contributors: User:IronChrisImage:Hawk moth caterpillar.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Hawk_moth_caterpillar.jpg  License: unknown  Contributors: Fir0002, Gildemax, Kevmin, Olei,Rocket000, WikiWookieImage:Hyles-gallii-caterpillar.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Hyles-gallii-caterpillar.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Ann-Charlotte JanssonFile:HawkMothfromGreece.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:HawkMothfromGreece.jpg  License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0  Contributors:User:EdalImage:Bee_hawk_moth_newspaper.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Bee_hawk_moth_newspaper.jpg  License: Creative Commons Attribution 2.5  Contributors:User:WikiWookieImage:Hemaris thysbe.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Hemaris_thysbe.jpg  License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0  Contributors: Original uploader wasLonniehuffman at en.wikipediaImage:Oleander_Hawk_Moth.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Oleander_Hawk_Moth.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Sugatabanerji, Zappernapper

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