Hippotion celerio ( Linnaeus, 1758 )

Mbata, Keith J. & Prins, Jurate De, 2023, Annotated checklist of moths of Zambia (Insecta: Lepidoptera), Zootaxa 5354 (1), pp. 1-503 : 178-179

Hippotion celerio ( Linnaeus, 1758) * ( Fig. 29 )

COMMON NAME (S): Silver striped Hawkmoth, Silver Striped Hawk, Vine Hawk-Moth, Vine Hawk, Grape vine hawkmoth, Grapevine hawk moth or Taro Hawkmoth.

SYNONYM(S): Sphinx tisiphone Linnaeus, 1758 ; Phalaena inquilina Harris, 1781 ; Hippotion ocys Ḩbner, 1819; Deilephila albolineata Montrousier, 1864 ; Hippotion sieberti Closs, 1910 ;

IUCN STATUS: Not Evaluated (NE).

DISTRIBUTION: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Arabia , Australia, Austria, Azores, Belgium, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, British Isles, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canary Islands, Cabo Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Cook Islands, Côte d’Ivoire, Crete, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, France, French Polynesia, Gabon, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iberian Peninsula, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Lesotho, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Madeira, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Metropolitan France, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia , Netherlands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nigeria, North Italy, Oman,

Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Congo, Réunion, Romania, Russia,

Rwanda, Saint Helena , Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, Sao Tome & Principe, Sardinia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal,

Seychelles, Sicily, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Socotra, Somalia, South Africa, South Italy, South

Sudan, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunis, Turkey, Uganda, United Arab

Emirates, United Kingdom, Tanzania, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

LOCALITY IN ZAMBIA: University of Zambia in Lusaka **, Chirundu and Kafue, all three localities in Lusaka Province ; Victoria Falls Region, in Southern and Western Provinces; Chipata , in Eastern Province ; Kitwe, in Copperbelt Province ; Mumbwa, in Central Province .

LARVAL HOSTPLANT(S): Larval foodplants include: one Polygonaceae species ( Rumex abyssinicus Jacq. ) in the Réunion ( Martiré & Rochat 2008); three Vitaceae species ( Cyphostemma cirrhosum (Thunb.) Desc. ex Wild & R.B.Drumm. , Vitis vinifera L. and Cissus cornifolia (Baker) Planch. ), two Fabaceae species ( Vachellia karroo (Hayne) Banfi & Galasso and Acacia caffra (Thunb.) Willd. ) and one Balsaminaceae species ( Impatiens sp. ) in South Africa ( Platt 1921; Taylor 1949; van den Berg et al. 1975); one Nyctaginaceae species ( Boerhavia erecta L.), one Moraceae species ( Ficus sur Forssk. ) and one Euphorbiaceae species ( Manihot esculenta Crantz ) in Côte d’Ivoire ( Vuattoux et al. 1989); one Vitaceae species ( Cissus rotundifolia Vahl ) in Saudi Arabia ( Wiltshire 1986); one Vitaceae ( Vitis sp. ) and one Nyctaginaceae species ( Boerhavia helenae Roem. & Schult. ) in Cabo Verde Islands ( Baliteau & Baliteau 2011; Vieira 2008); two Vitaceae species ( Vitis sp. , and Cissus sp. ), one Dioscoreaceae species ( Dioscorea sp. ) and one Onagraceae species ( Jussiaea sp. ) in Cameroon ( Schultze 1914) and two Vitaceae species ( Parthenocissus quinquefolia (L.) Planch. and Parthenocissus sp. ), one Rubiaceae species ( Galium sp. ), two Onagraceae species ( Epilobium sp. and Fuchsia sp. ), one Nyctaginaceae species ( Boerhavia elegans Choisy ), one Fabaceae species ( Vigna sp. ) and one Polygonaceae species ( Oxygonum atriplicifolium (Meisn.) Martelli ) in an unnamed African country or countries ( Boisduval 1833 b; Walsingham & Hampson 1896; Distant 1903; Townsend 1936; Hacker 2016).

The African Moths (2019) webpage lists the following as larval foodplants of the taxon but does not specify in which of the countries named above they occur: one Polygonaceae species ( Rumex abyssinicus Jacq. ); three Vitaceae species ( Ampelopsis sp. , Cyphostemma cirrhosum (Thunb.) Desc. ex Wild & R.B.Drumm. and Vitis vinifera L. ), one Rubiaceae species ( Galium verum L.), two Onagraceae species ( Epilobium sp. and Fuchsia sp. ), one Nyctaginaceae species ( Boerhavia elegans Choisy ), one Amaranthaceae species ( Beta vulgaris L.), three Fabaceae species ( Vachellia karroo (Hayne) Banfi & Galasso , A. caffra (Thunb.) Willd. and Vigna sp. ), one Balsaminaceae species ( Impatiens sp. ) and two Convolvulaceae species ( Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam., and I. pileata Roxb. ).

A wasp species ( Trichogrammatoidea lutea Girault ) from the family Trichogrammatidae is reported as a parasitoid of the taxon in the Cabo Verde Islands ( Vieira 2008)

SOURCES: African Moths, 2019; Baliteau & Baliteau 2011; Boisduval 1833; De Prins & De Prins 2022; Distant 1903; Hacker 2016;

Hampson 1910c; Linnaeus 1758; Martiré & Rochat 2008; Platt 1921; Schultze 1914; Taylor 1949; Townsend 1936;

Vuattoux et al. 1989; van den Berg et al. 1975; Vieira 2008; Walsingham & Hampson, 1896; Wiltshire 1986.

Figures

FIGURES 29–31. Adult moths. 29a, Usta terpsichore (Maassen, 1885)—Cavorting Emperor (Saturniidae: Saturniinae). Riverside Motel (RIMO), Kafue, 7 November 2010, dorsal view; 29b, ditto ventral view. 30a. Acherontia atropos (Linnaeus, 1758)—Death’s Head Hawkmoth (Sphingidae: Smerinthiinae) collected with a black light trap in Lusaka, 2 May, 2011, dorsal view; 30b, ditto, ventral view. 31, Agrius convolvuli (Linnaeus, 1758)—Convolvulus Hawk (Sphingidae: Sphinginae), 31a, live specimen 1, 24th November 2009; 31b, live specimen 2, same locality data. Scale bar 2 cm. © Kind permission of the University of Zambia.