GB: Saunders' Bee Hawkmoth
Sesia saundersi Walker, 1856, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln. Br. Mus. 8: 83.Type locality: Northern India.
Holarctic; western Palaearctic region. Pleistocene refuge: Monocentric -- northern section of Sindian refuge.
Wingspan: 50--60mm. Very like a large version of H. fuciformis, but without the scaled line across the forewing cell. According to Bell & Scott (1937), upperside head, thorax and abdomen olive-green; fourth and fifth abdominal segments brownish-red, with a mesal patch of the same colour on the sixth segment. Underside of abdomen brownish-red, grey mesially. Forewing upperside hyaline, with a broad reddish-brown marginal band as in H. fuciformis. Hind wing hyaline, with a narrow reddish-brown marginal border as in H. tityus.
Diurnal. A species of scrub-jungle at 1800-3000m altitude.
Uni- or bivoltine, depending on locality. In Kashmir, on the wing in June; in Himachal Pradesh during April/May and again in July.
OVUM: Unknown.
LARVA: Full-fed 45mm. Early instars undescribed. According to Bell & Scott (1937), the fully-grown larva resembles that of H. fuciformis.
Found in May/June and again in August in scub-jungle at Mussooree (Uttar Pradesh); uncommen (Bell & Scott, 1937).
Hostplants. Lonicera quinquelocularis in Uttar Pradesh, India (Bell & Scott, 1937).
PUPA: 30mm. Slender, dark brown, shiny, very similar to that of H. croatica. The overwintering stage.
Currently known only from southern Kashmir, northern Pakistan (Murree), northern India (Himachal Pradesh) and northeastern Afghanistan (Danner, Eitschberger & Surholt, 1998).
Extra-limital range. Eastwards along the himalayan foothills of India (Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Sikkim) to Bangladesh and northern Myanmar.
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