MACROGLOSSUM HEMICHROMA Butler, 1875

Female Macroglossum hemichroma, Road from Palopo, Puncak Palopo, Sulawesi Selatan, South-Sulawesi, Indonesia. Photo: © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London (Sphingidae Taxonomic Inventory, NHMUK) Male Macroglossum hemichroma, Java, Indonesia. Photo: © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London (Sphingidae Taxonomic Inventory, NHMUK)

TAXONOMY

Macroglossa hemichroma Butler, 1875, Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1875: 243. Type locality: [Bangladesh,] Silhet [Sylhet].


ADULT DESCRIPTION AND VARIATION

Wingspan: 60--70mm. A large species of Macroglossum. Head and thorax uppersides with a dark median line. Forewing upperside sharply divided into pale proximal and darker distal parts, the dividing line running straight from the costal margin just proximal to the upper angle of the discal cell to the hind margin several millimetres proximal to the hind angle; antemedial and discal lines vestigial, the former curved, the latter almost straight, only slightly curved costad anteriorly. In the male genitalia, uncus slightly dilated apically, truncate, with angles rounded. Gnathos swollen apically, the apical edge curving dorsad, tapering mesially, the upperside transversely carinate, the mesial line elevated. Valve with stridulatory scales. Harpe ending in a very short, triangular, pointed process. Aedeagus with process long and slender, not denticulate, but with a single, long, basal tooth that projects distad; the pair of cornuti are short spatulate sticks, the longer one dilated into a tooth-like object.


ADULT BIOLOGY

Unknown.


FLIGHT-TIME

China: vii-viii (Yunnan).

In Thailand, from February to May, and again from August to October (Inoue, Kennett & Kitching, 1997).


EARLY STAGES

OVUM: Unknown.

LARVA: Unknown.

PUPA: Unknown.

Larval hostplants. Unknown.


PARASITOIDS

Unknown.


LOCAL DISTRIBUTION

China: Yunnan. Only recorded once, in 2013 (Pan & Han, 2018), although missidentified as Macroglossum clemensi Cadiou, 1998.


GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION

Eastern Bangladesh, NE India, Thailand, southern China (Yunnan), Vietnam, Malaysia (Peninsular), Indonesia (Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi), and the Philippines. [Although not yet recorded from there, more than likely also Myanmar/Burma, Laos, Cambodia and Sarawak.]


Global distribution of Macroglossum hemichroma. Map: © Tony Pittaway.

BIOGEOGRAPHICAL AFFILIATION



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