MACROGLOSSUM FARO FARO (Cramer, 1780) -- Large hummingbird hawkmoth

Female Macroglossum faro faro. Photo: © NHMUK Male Macroglossum faro faro. Photo: © NHMUK

TAXONOMY

Sphinx faro Cramer, 1780, Uitlandsche Kapellen (Papillons exot.) 3: 165, pl. 285, fig. C. Type locality: [India,] "Coromandel" [Tamil Nadu/Andhra Pradesh].

Synonym. Sphinx faro Cramer, 1780.

[Further details on this species in Japan, as well as photos of many stages, can be found on Digital Moths of Japan.]


ADULT DESCRIPTION AND VARIATION

Wingspan: 74--78mm. The largest known Macroglossum. Similar in colour and pattern to Macroglossum passalus, with the following differences: thorax upperside and sometimes the first abdominal tergites green, with no sharply defined dark area on the mesothoracic tegula; abdomen with yellow patches comparatively smaller; underside generally deeper brown; abdomen underside with sternites, at least the proximal ones, with large pale mesial patches; forewing upperside with antemedian lines being more distinctly separate; second discal line much thinner, and the space between first and second not black anteriorly; the black submarginal area being more like a band than a cloud; hindwing underside base obviously shaded with yellow.

Male genitalia similar to Macroglossum passalus, but harpe longer, with the tip more strongly recurved and more obviously denticulate; aedeagus with process longer, more acute, with a similar patch of teeth near its base, but these smaller, and the underside of the process densely denticulate.


Macroglossum faro faro, Daoxian, Nanling Shan, Hunan, China, 30.viii.2019. Photo: © Tan JiangLi.

ADULT BIOLOGY

Unknown.


FLIGHT-TIME

China: viii (Hunan; Guangdong). Japan: viii (Ryukyu Archipelago).


EARLY STAGES

OVUM: Unknown.

LARVA: Unknown.

PUPA: Unknown.

Larval hostplants. Unknown.


PARASITOIDS

Unknown.


LOCAL DISTRIBUTION

China: Hunan (Daoxian, Nanling Shan); Guangdong (Longtou Shan).

Japan: Ryukyu Archipelago (Okinawa; Iriomote-jima).


GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION

Southern India (Tamil Nadu/Andhra Pradesh), Thailand, southeastern China, southern Japan (Ryukyu Archipelago), Vietnam, Malaysia (Peninsular, Sarawak), Indonesia (Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan).

Probably an autumn migrant/vagrant north to southern Japan and China.


Global distribution of Macroglossum faro faro. Map: © NHMUK.

BIOGEOGRAPHICAL AFFILIATION



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© A. R. Pittaway & I. J. Kitching (Natural History Museum, London)