GB: Chitral Elephant Hawkmoth
Chaerocampa rivularis Boisduval, [1875], in Boisduval & Guenee, Hist. nat. Insectes (Spec. gen. Lepid. Heteroceres) 1: 280.Type locality: Simla, India.
(Taxonomic notes. (i) Kernbach (1958) regards this species as a subspecies of D. elpenor, an opinion he shares with many others. However, Ebert (1974) provides convincing evidence that D. rivularis is a valid species.
(ii) The LECTOTYPE is a female in the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., bearing two labels. One states 'rivularis B, Darjiling', the other 'epilobis BV, Simlah'. In his explicit description of D. rivularis, Boisduval stated quite clearly that this specimen was from Simlah [Simla], but added that a second specimen was reared by a Captain Shervill from an 'elpenor-like' larva collected at Darjeeling. The latter was probably the source of the incorrect labelling. The correct type locality is therefore 'Simlah [Simla]'. D. rivularis does not occur farther east than Uttar Pradesh, India. The individual raised by Capt. Shervill was D. elpenor macromera.)
Holarctic; western Palaearctic region. Pleistocene refuge: Monocentric -- Sindian refuge.
Wingspan: 64--82mm. Very like D. elpenor, but with the rosy red parts of the body and wings heavily suffused with cinnamon, the red coloration being far less bright than in D. elpenor, especially on the wings. Marginal area of hindwing broad. In the male genitalia, the processes of the sacculi are bent claw-like and strongly sclerotized. Aedeagus anteriorly with a noticeably strong, subapical, oblique, dentate ridge, much more so than in D. elpenor. Even the single cornutus is more pronounced.
Nothing known, except that it tends to occur at 2000--4000m.
Bivoltine; February/March, and late June and July, so far as known.
As D. elpenor (Bell & Scott, 1937).
Hostplants. Arisaema and Impatiens in India (Bell & Scott, 1937).
Unknown.
Eastern Afghanistan (Safed Koh Mountains, Kotkai) at 2350m (Ebert, 1974) and central Afghanistan (Danner, Eitschberger & Surholt, 1998).
Extra-limital range. Pakistan, as far south as Karachi (Bell & Scott, 1937; Ebert, 1974), and northern India as far east as Dehra Dun, Uttar Pradesh, India. Records from Sikkim are almost certainly erroneous, even though there is a specimen in the Natural History Museum, London, attributed to this locality.
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