Sphynx proserpina Pallas, 1772, Spic. Zool. (1) 9: 26. Type locality: Germany, Frankfurt am Main.
Wingspan: 36--60mm.; most about 46mm. Difficult to confuse with any other sphingid from the region. Although highly variable in size, colour variation tends to be minimal, being confined to the primary ground coloration, which is normally shades of green: f. schmidti Schmidt has yellow-grey forewings and grey hindwings; f. brunnea Geest has a pale 'leather' coloration with a reddish median band; f. grisea Rebel has the green coloration entirely replaced by grey.
A local species, often disappearing from a locality for a number of years, but appearing in another. Mainly found along the edges of woods and scrub, especially by streams and rivers.
Few adults are found by searching due to their predominantly green coloration combined with their preference for resting among low vegetation at the base of the plants. Flies for only a short period each day, usually at dawn and dusk (Rondou, 1903), although individuals have been seen in sunlight at midday (Pittaway, 1993). Attracted to strong-smelling and blue flowers.
China: 5.vi (Jingo He/river). Russia: vii (Siberia).
OVUM: Green, almost spherical (1.0 x 1.1mm), shiny and smooth. Laid singly on the under-surface of leaves, close to the flower-heads, often more than one to a plant.
LARVA: Full-fed 60--70mm. Dichromatic: green or brown.
Matt green when young with a yellow dorso-lateral line, a yellow head and a matt yellow spot supplanting the horn. Spiracles black, ringed with yellow. At this stage it feeds quite openly, either on the upperside of a leaf or, when on Oenothera, on the flowers. Growth is slow at first, but speeds up considerably on reaching the fifth instar, at which stage most individuals leave the hostplant to hide during the day, either at its base or somewhere nearby. The majority will now have acquired their final coloration: dorsal surface brown with black dots; sides and ventral surface buff, cris-crossed by a network of fine, dark lines. Spiracles brown, each set in a brown spot elongated into an oblique streak. Head brown; posterior button (in place of horn) yellow or orange, brown-centred and black-ringed. A few, however, remain primarily green throughout the larval stage but still bear the standard pattern.
Always found singly but often locally common. When on the move, the larva creeps along with a rather hesitant, jerky motion.
PUPA: 25--30mm. Reddish brown with darker head and abdomen. Cremaster broad basally, flattened dorso-ventrally. With two prominent head tubercles; proboscis only slightly keeled. Very similar in shape to that of Daphnis but much smaller. Formed in a loosely spun cocoon among debris on the ground. The overwintering stage.
Larval hostplants. Unknown in China, but elsewhere usually on species of Epilobium, with occasional records on Lythrum and Oenothera.
Unknown for China.
China: Xinjiang (Jingo He/river, 30km west of Shihezi); west Xizang/Tibet.
Russia: Siberia (Bogotola, Tomsk area; Karasuk; Omsk).
Chu & Wang (1982) report P. proserpina from southern Xizang/Tibet (Nyalam, 2250m), well outside the normal range of this species. This is probably a mislabelled specimen from farther north (?Qinghai), but this requires further investigation.
Occurs throughout central and southern Europe, east through Russia as far as Krasnoyarsk (Danner et al., 1998). Also east from Turkey and Lebanon through northern Iraq, northern Iran, southern Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, to the Pamir Mountains, Tian Shan, eastern Afghanistan (Pittaway, 1993) and west Xizang/Tibet (Chu & Wang, 1980); thence northeast through eastern Kazakhstan to western Xinjiang. Also present in the Atlas Mountains of northwest Africa.
Holarctic; western Palaearctic region. Pleistocene refuge: Polycentric -- Atlantomediterranean/Mauritanian and Pontomediterranean subsections of the Mediterranean refuge, as well as the Turkestan refuge.
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