Smerinthus atlanticus
| Smerinthus atlanticus | ||||||||||||
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Smerinthus atlanticus , male (specimen, top side) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Smerinthus atlanticus | ||||||||||||
| Austaut , 1890 |
Smerinthus atlanticus is a butterfly ( moth ) from the family of moth (Sphingidae). The taxon from Kitchingis currentlyconsidered to be a valid species, as confirmed by Eitschberger (2002). The status of this taxon is partly controversial and has been changed several times since it was first described. Due to the strong morphological similarities or overlaps with the evening peacock butterfly ( Smerinthus ocellata ) and the fact that the species often forms reproductive hybrids with the evening peacock butterfly, Pittawayassumes that it is a subspecies of the evening peacock.
features
The moths have a wingspan of 85 to 110 millimeters. They are larger and paler in color than the very similar butterflies of Smerinthus ocellata , although the variation in the coloration of the individuals overlaps. The adults of the spring generation are smaller and darker in color than those of the summer generation. The sacculus of the male genitals is longer and distally narrower than that of Smerinthus ocellata . The rear half of the aedeagus is more powerfully built and more curved and appears almost cranked.
The eggs do not differ from those of the evening peacock eye. The caterpillars are 70 to 90 millimeters long. They look very similar to those of the evening peacock eye, but are larger and have a stronger, uniformly blue-gray colored anal horn . The pupa is 38 to 45 millimeters long and in all its characteristics similar to those of the pupae of the evening peacock.
Occurrence
The species is distributed in North Africa in the Atlas Mountains and the surrounding lowlands from Morocco to Tunisia and is also found in Sardinia and Corsica. Protected areas and rivers are populated with vegetation of willows ( Salix ) and poplars ( Populus ), as well as damp channels and ditches with abundant willow vegetation.
Way of life
The moths fly in two generations per year, which mainly fly in April / May and July / August. However, individual moths can be found from March to September. The caterpillars appear from early May to October. They feed on willows and poplars. There are no known parasitoids that infect the species.
Taxonomy and systematics
Jules Léon Austaut described the species in 1890 using butterflies from an ex-larva breed. The caterpillars came from southern Morocco and the Moroccan province of Oujda-Angad on the Algerian border. It was already considered a synonym for the evening peacock in 1894 by Lionel Walter Rothschild . In 1901 Staudinger assumed that it was a geographical variety of the evening peacock. It was raised to species rank again in 1989 by Eitschberger, Danner & Surholt, only to be resynonymized by Pittaway in 1993, this time as a subspecies, with Smerinthus ocellata . Bridges mistakenly treated it as a species in 1993, whereupon Kitching & Cadiou resynonymized it again in 2000 as a subspecies of Smerinthus ocellata . Finally, the species status was restored in 2002 by Eitschberger, which is currently also considered correct by Kitching.
supporting documents
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Sphingidae of the Western Palaearctic. AR Pittaway, accessed September 18, 2015 .
- ↑ Smerinthus atlanticus Austaut, 1890. Sphingidae Taxonomic Inventory, accessed September 18, 2015 .
