MACROGLOSSUM OBSCURA Butler, 1875 -- Obscure hummingbird hawkmoth

Male Macroglossum obscura. Photo: © NHMUK

TAXONOMY

Macroglossum obscura Butler, 1875, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1875: 5. Type locality: [Indonesia:] Java.

Note. Synonymized with Macroglossum sylvia Boisduval, 1875, by Rothschild & Jordan, 1903, Novit. zool. 9 (suppl.): 658. However, following recognition that the syntypes of Macroglossum sylvia (q.v.) were specimens of two different subspecies of Macroglossum corythus, Macroglossa obscura becomes the oldest available name for the species long referred to as Macroglossum sylvia. Macroglossum sylvia Boisduval, 1875, is now a synonym of Macroglossum corythus pylene C. Felder, 1861.


ADULT DESCRIPTION AND VARIATION

Wingspan: 60--66mm.


ADULT BIOLOGY


FLIGHT-TIME

China: 22.viii (Yunnan); 18.x (Hong Kong).


EARLY STAGES

OVUM: Unknown.

LARVA: Unknown.

PUPA: Unknown.

Larval hostplants. Unknown.


PARASITOIDS

Unknown.


LOCAL DISTRIBUTION

China: Yunnan (Simao/Pu'er; Hekou Yao Autonomous County); Guangdong; Hong Kong (Lantau Island) - only recorded once (Kendrick, 2010).

Taiwan.


GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION

Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, southern China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia (Peninsular, Sarawak, Sabah), Indonesia (Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku), the Philippines.


Global distribution of Macroglossum obscura. Map: © NHMUK.

BIOGEOGRAPHICAL AFFILIATION


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