SMERINTHULUS COTTONI Cadiou & Kitching, 1990 -- Cottons' hawkmoth

Male Smerinthulus cottoni, Wuzhishan National Nature Reserve, Hainan, China. Photo: © Zhuo-Heng Jiang. Female Smerinthulus cottoni, Ban Pong, Hang Dong, Chiang Mai, Thailand. Photo: © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London (NHMUK) Male Smerinthulus cottoni, Sanpatong, Chiang Mai, Thailand. Photo: © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London (NHMUK)

TAXONOMY

Smerinthulus quadripunctatus subsp. cottoni Cadiou & Kitching, 1990, Lambillionea 90(4): 7. Type locality: Thailand, Chiang Mai, San Pa Tong, Ban Sop Tong, 19.x.1988 (A. M. Cotton).

Synonym. Smerinthulus quadripunctatus subsp. cottoni Cadiou & Kitching, 1990.

Note. Raised to species status by Brechlin, 2014, Entomo-Satsphingia 7(2): 38.


ADULT DESCRIPTION AND VARIATION

Very similar in appearance to Smerinthulus laurae Brechlin, 2014, from Malaysia.


Male Smerinthulus cottoni, Bawangling National Nature Reserve, Hainan, China, 12.i.2023. Photo: © Fan Gao.

ADULT BIOLOGY

Unknown.


FLIGHT-TIME

China: 12.i (Bawangling National Nature Reserve, Changjiang County, Hainan); 11.iv (Jianfengling, Ledong County, Hainan).


EARLY STAGES

OVUM: Unknown.

LARVA: [Illustrated in Eitschberger & Ihle, 2010].

PUPA: Unknown.

Larval hostplants. Reported from Thailand as feeding on Shorea obtusa Wall. ex Blume (Eitschberger & Ihle, 2010).


PARASITOIDS

Unknown.


LOCAL DISTRIBUTION

China: Hainan (Bawangling National Nature Reserve, Changjiang County; Jianfengling, Ledong County, 200m; Wuzhishan National Nature Reserve)


GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION

Besides the island of Hainan, China (Jiang & Zhang; 2024), also recorded from northern Thailand and eastern Burma/Myanmar. It thus probably also occurs across northern Laos and Vietnam.


Global distribution of Smerinthulus cottoni. Map: © Tony Pittaway.

BIOGEOGRAPHICAL AFFILIATION


Return to Sphingidae of the Eastern Palaearctic species list
© A. R. Pittaway & I. J. Kitching (Natural History Museum, London)