Smerinthus tatarinovii Bremer & Grey, 1853, in Motschulsky (ed.), Etudes ent. 1: 62. Type locality: [China,] Peking [Beijing].
Wingspan: 57--82mm. Very like Smerinthus kindermannii, but with the forewing colours predominantly green and grey; however, there is a recessive northern form in which all green coloration is replaced by brown. All three specimens from Xinjiang Province, China (in the collection of the Shihezi Agricultural College (SACS)) were of this brown form eversmannii (Eversmann, 1854).
In the Russian Far East, where it frequents both coniferous and deciduous woodland, females are active between 22.20h and 00.40h, and males from 22.40h until 0230h (Izerskiy, 1999b).
In China, there can be one or two generations a year, depending upon latitude.
China: vi (Jinan); 11.vi (Hebei); 15.vi-25.vii (Xinjiang, Shihezi); vi-vii (Nei Mongol, Great Khingan Mountains); vi-vii (Harbin; Liaoling); vii (Nei Mongol, Great Khingan Mountains; Heilongjiang); 21.vii (Shaanxi); ix (Shaanxi). Mongolia: 20.vii (Prikhingan'e). North Korea: vi (Hamhung); vii (Baekdu-san). South Korea: vii (Ori-Dong). Russia: 3-19.vi (Primorskiy Kray); vi-vii (Amurskaya); 3-26.vii (Primorskiy Kray); vii-viii (Primorskiy Kray).
The three specimens from Shihezi, Xinjiang, bear the dates 15 VI 1982, 12 VII 1982 and 25 VII 1983. Farther east in China this species is double-brooded and it may also be so in Xinjiang.
Park et al. (1999) give early May until mid October as the flight period in Korea.
OVUM: Oval, 1.35 x 2.03mm. Very similar to that of Smerinthus ocellata.
LARVA: Full-fed 60--80mm. Early instars undescribed. The mature larva is very like that of Smerinthus ocellata, except that it has a very noticable narrow cream dorsal line and alternate bold and faint oblique lateral stripes. The horn is almost straight and reddish.
In eastern China, full-grown larvae are usually met with between June and July (Chu et al., 1979); however, full-grown larvae are also common in the suburbs of Beijing in late August, particularly on weeping varieties of Ulmus (Pittaway, pers. obs. 2003).
PUPA: 34--41mm. Dark mahogany brown and slightly glossy; tapering caudad from a blunt head and thorax. Proboscis not present, but replaced by a knob-like tubercle. Wings and abdominal segments finely punctate. Cremaster broadly conical, with a sharp point; tuberculate. Similar to that of Smerinthus ocellata, but less glossy. Formed in an almost silk-free cell in the soil. The overwintering stage.
Larval hostplants. Recorded in Guangdong on Ulmus parvifolius (Mell, 1922b) and in northern China on Zelkova (Yang, 1978). Most other larval hostplant records from elsewhere within the range of C. tatarinovii are also Ulmaceae. However, Yang (1978) also listed Euonymus alatus, Salix and Populus, while Xiao (1992) stated that C. tatarinovii is an occasional pest of the last of these. These, plus a single record from Prunus persica (Chang, 1989), require confirmation.
Mell (1958) noted that the larval hostplant of C. t. tatarinovii, Ulmus parvifolius, did not occur south of about 24°N in northern Guangdong and he never found this hawkmoth in the south of that province (Mell 1922b, 1958). Hence, we consider that the record of C. tatarinovii from Hainan (Yang, 1978) is a misidentification of C. r. rubricosa, which may also be true of lowland Tibetan records (Wang, 1988). However, Zhang et al. (1986) illustrated a typical C. t. tatarinovii from 3070m at Nyinchi, and thus C. tatarinovii may indeed extend southwest at high altitudes from Sichuan to Xizang/Tibet.
Recorded in Korea on Ulmus davidiana var. japonica, Zelkova serrata, Tilia amurensis and Euonymus sieboldianus (Park et al., 1999). The record of Euonymus supports the claim that this host is used in China.
Izerskiy (1999b) gives Ulmus japonica for the Russian Far East.
Unknown.
China: Xinjiang (Shihezi); Nei Mongol (Great Khingan Mountains, Zalantun/Butha Qi, 1100-2000m); Heilongjiang (Harbin; Lalin; Lesser Khingan Mountains, Fengling Forest); Hebei (Chengde; Tianjin); Beijing (Haidian); Shandong (Jinan; Beidaihe; Weihai); Shanxi (Taiyuan; Taigu; Qixian; Xiaxian; Pingyao; Jiexiu); Shaanxi (Louguantai Forest Park; Xunyang, 1380m); Ningxia; Henan; Shanghai; Zhejiang (Tianmu Shan); Hubei (Xianfeng); Sichuan (Kangding; Xichang); Hunan (Shangzhi; Wuling Mountains); Fujian (Longqi Shan); Xizang/Tibet (Mutu, Namjagbarwa region, 850m; Nyingchi, 3070m).
Previously, this subspecies was known from the eastern half of China, as far south and west as Sichuan, Hunan and Fujian. The above records from near the China-Kazakhstan border (Shihezi) (SACS) represent a considerable westward extension to the known range of this eastern Palaearctic species. This is probably a result of the extensive planting of Ulmus trees across northern China, forming a habitable corridor that C. t. tatarinovii has exploited (Smerinthus p. planus (q.v.) has also reached the same area by a similar means).
Mongolia: Prikhingan'e.
North Korea: North Pyongan Prov. (Myohyang-san); South Hamgyong Prov. (Seokwang Temple; Hamhung; Gyungsung); North Hamgyong Prov. (Baekdu-san, 2500m; Charyung).
South Korea: Widespread in Seoul; Kyonggi Prov.; Kangwon Prov.; North Chungchong Prov.; South Chungchong Prov.; North Cholla Prov.; South Cholla Prov.; North Kyongsang Prov.; South Kyongsang Prov.; Cheju Prov.
Japan: Hokkaido; Honshu; Shikoku; Kyushu; Tsushima.
Russia: Transbaikalia (Kyachta; Lake Baikal (Slydyanka)); Amurskaya (Belogorsk); Yevreyskaya (Pompeyevka); Khabarovsk Kray (Khabarovsk; Slavyanka); Primorskiy Kray (Barabash; Jankowski Peninsula; Primorskiy; Khasan; Andreevka).
From northern Xinjiang across northern China, Mongolia, southern Siberia/Transbaikalia (Chistyakov, 1988; Sergei Rybalkin, pers. comm.) to the Russian Far East and Japan, and then south through Korea (Kim et al., 1982) and central China to eastern Xizang/Tibet.
Holarctic; eastern Palaearctic region. Pleistocene refuge: Monocentric -- Manchurian refuge.
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