Smerinthus populi var. populetorum Staudinger, 1887, Stettiner Entomologische Zeitung 48: 65. Type locality: [Kyrgyzstan,] Osch [Osh] (Haberhauer) [MNHU]; Lectotype designated by Danner, Eitschberger & Surholt, 1998, Herbipoliana 4(1): 111.
Wingspan: 70--120mm. Very like subsp. populi. Many have a reddish tone, which is easily produced by subjecting developing pupae to heat, or grey replacing the pinkish tint.
China: 23.iv.-v (Xinjiang).
Probably bivoltine; April-May and again in July/August.
OVUM: Pale green, almost sperical and large for the size of moth.
LARVA: Unknown.
PUPA: Unknown.
Larval hostplants. Unknown in China but recorded elsewhere on Populus and Salix (Pittaway, 1993).
Unknown.
China: Xinjiang (Yining/Gulja).
The above records (two specimens in SACS recorded by Pittaway & Kitching (2000) as Laothoe populi populeti (Bienert, [1870])) confirm the occurrence of Laothoe populi populetorum in China.
River valleys in the mountains and foothills of eastern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and south-eastern Kazakhstan (south of the Kyrgyz Steppe) to northwest China (Alphéraky, 1882), possibly as far as the southern Altai Mountains.
Holarctic; western Palaearctic region. Pleistocene refuge: Monocentric -- Turkestan refuge.
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