Laothoe populeti
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Preparation of a male; Top |
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| Laothoe populeti | ||||||||||||
| ( Bienert , 1870) |
Laothoe populeti is a butterfly ( moth ) from the family of moth (Sphingidae).
features
The moths reach a wingspan of 70 to 120 millimeters, whereby the subspecies caucao is significantly smaller with only 64 to 74 millimeters.
They resemble the poplar hawkmoth ( Laothoe populi ), but they lack the purple hue of the otherwise gray color. The gray is also paler and goes slightly into pink orange. Often there are also individuals with a reddish hue. There are also only pure gray colored individuals. The compound eyes are olive green, whereas they are usually dark brown in poplar hawks. In the male genitalia, the lobes of the saccule are of the same length, but the upper one in particular is slimmer than in the poplar hawk. The Aedeagus has fewer and thinner cornuti. The uncus is much wider and the gnathos longer than the poplar hawk.
The subspecies caucao cannot be reliably distinguished from the nominate subspecies on the basis of external characteristics. Their wing color is generally sand gray or pink, but they can be the same gray as the poplar hawk. The antemedial bandage on the forewings is usually almost straight and has no kink at the level of the R-Cu cell. The bandage is seldom convex; if it is, it is mostly in females. The red anal spot on the hind wings is shortened, but extends to the postmedial band. In the male genitalia, the apical lobe of the vesica bears a single, needle-shaped, large basal cornutus and a small group of less small apical cornuti. This lobe is poorly developed.
Pre-imaginal stages
The relatively large eggs are pale green and almost spherical in shape. As with the poplar hawk, they are pale green, but relatively larger. The caterpillars resemble those of Laothoe austauti in all stages of development . Their anal horn , however, is significantly longer, more curved and more powerfully built than that of the poplar hawks. Unlike Laothoe austauti, they are never orange. The front of the head capsule is colored pale blue in some individuals. The doll is matte black or dark brown. It has a rough, non-shiny surface. The cremaster is short, flattened dorso-ventrally, broad at the base and ends in a sharp point.
Occurrence
The species occurs in southern Georgia , Armenia , Azerbaijan , eastern Turkey , northeast Iraq , the mountainous Iranian highlands, and western Turkmenistan . The subspecies cauco has only been reliably detected from Tbilisi , the capital of Georgia, but is also likely to occur in southern Russia as far as the lower Volga region, possibly also as far as the area around Rostov and in Crimea , as well as in Armenia, Azerbaijan and northern Iran on.
Way of life
The moths fly in three generations per year in April and May, in June and July, and in September. As with Laothoe austauti , the moths are found on streams and rivers overgrown with poplars and willows, but also in fields, plantations and oases. After mating, the pair usually separate before dawn, with the females already laying part of their eggs in the same night.
The caterpillars feed on poplars ( Populus ) and willows ( Salix ). You can find them between April and October. Parasitoids that infest the caterpillars are not known.
Taxonomy and systematics
DNA studies suggest that the species is most closely related to Laothoe austauti (Staudinger, 1877) from northwestern Africa. The two species appear to be western and eastern descendants of a species that was native to North Africa, which was cooler and more humid during the last Ice Age. According to Pittaway, the subspecies syriaca (Gehlen, 1932) and intermedia (Gehlen, 1934) described by Ghelen cannot be kept upright, since these moths hardly differ from Laothoe populeti populeti . Rather, it is a hybrid between L. populeti populeti and L. populi populi that occurs in Turkey along a narrow zone .
The subspecies L. populeti caucao , which was only described by Zolotuhin in 2018, is, however, temporarily considered valid by Pittaway, as a 2.4% difference in the DNA was found. He noted, however, that within the Smerinthini tribe a distinction of 3.5 to 4% is necessary in order to justify its own species status and, due to insufficient studies, it is also conceivable that caucao is only a local variety could be about Laothoe populeti .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Sphingidae of the Western Palaearctic: Laothoe populeti populeti (Bienert, 1870). AR Pittaway, accessed December 31, 2018 .
- ↑ a b c d Sphingidae of the Western Palaearctic: Laothoe populeti caucao Zolotuhin, 2018. AR Pittaway, accessed December 31, 2018 .
