Smerinthus carstanjeni Staudinger, 1887, in Romanoff (ed.), Mém. Lépid. 3: 159. Type locality: [Russia, Khabarovsk Kray/Primorskiy Kray] Ussuri; [Russia, Primorskiy Kray,] Suifun [Suifen].
M. gaschkewitschii occurs in most habitats, including cities and orchards, and reaches over 2000m in Yunnan (Mell, 1935) and Nepal. Particularly common in montane forests rich in species of Prunus and Pyrus (Mell, 1935). Also common in the hills to the west and north of Beijing in the Ziziphus\Vitex\Rhus vegetation zone.
Russia: 15-26.vii (Primorskiy Kray).
OVUM: Oval (1.57 x 2.07mm).
LARVA: Full-fed 75--83mm.
Generally feeds at between 0.5 and 1.5m off the ground on terminal branches of bushes rather than trees. Smaller plants set in amongst other shrubs are preferred. Larvae can be met with at very high densities, withn often four or five per branch.
PUPA: 40--48mm. Reddish mahogany brown and glossy; tapering caudad from a blunt head and thorax. Head tuberculate, with two vertical, blunt, broad crests frontad. Proboscis not present, but replaced by a knob-like tubercle. Wings smooth, abdominal segments finely punctate. Spiracular ridges present on movable abdominal segments. Cremaster broadly conical, with a sharp point; tuberculate. Similar to that of Callambulyx tatarinovii, but head more rough and with two crest-like tubercles frontad, as found in most species of Marumba. Formed in an almost silk-free cell in the soil. The overwintering stage.
Larval hostplants. Recorded in Primorskiy Kray, Russia, on Prunus, Pyrus and Crataegus (Derzhavets, 1984); also on Malus baccata and Crataegus pinnatifida (Izerskiy, 1999b).
Recorded in Korea on Kerria japonica, Prunus mume, P. persica, P. salicina, P. serrulata, Malus pumila and Pyrus pyrifolia var. culta (Park et al., 1999). However, records from Buxus microphylla var. koreana are suspect.
For China, Yang (1978) and Chu & Wang (1980) also give Ziziphus mauritiana [Z. jujuba]. The first author was able to confirm this unusual hostplant by finding numerous full-grown larvae on Z. jujuba shrubs in the hills west of Beijing (Xiangshan) during late August (Pittaway, pers. obs. 2003). Larvae were also common on apricot Prunus armeniaca at Chengde. However, records from Buxus microphylla and Euonymus alatus (Chang, 1989) are suspect, while those on Vitis vinifera (Chu et al., 1979; Chu & Wang, 1980) are probably erroneous. The source and veracity of the record on Weigela (Zhang, 1994) are unknown.
In captivity the larvae found on Ziziphus and Prunus armeniaca readily transferred to Crataegus (Pittaway, pers. obs. 2003).
China: E Nei Mongol (Balin); Heilongjiang (Harbin; Lalin); Jilin; Liaoning (Huanren); Hebei; Beijing (Xiangshan; Botanical Garden).
Korea: The entire Korean Peninsula (including Cheju-do).
Russia: Amurskaya (Belogorsk; Blagoveshchensk); Khabarovsk Kray (Slavyanka); Kamchatka; Primorskiy Kray (Kaymanovka; Lesogor'e; Dal'nerechensk; Vityaz Bay; Khasan area; Kedrovaya Pad nature reserve).
The core distributions of the current seven subspecies of M. gaschkewitschii are as follows:
Russian Far East, northeastern China and the Korean Peninsula.
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