Sphinx ligustri

Privet hawk moth
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Sphingidae
Genus: Sphinx
Species: S. ligustri
Binomial name
Sphinx ligustri
Linnaeus, 1758[1]
Synonyms
  • Sphinx chishimensis Matsumura, 1929
  • Sphinx spiraeae Esper, 1800
  • Sphinx ligustri albescens Tutt, 1904
  • Sphinx ligustri amurensis Oberthür, 1886
  • Sphinx ligustri brunnea Tutt, 1904
  • Sphinx ligustri brunnescens (Lempke, 1959)
  • Sphinx ligustri cingulata (Lempke, 1964)
  • Sphinx ligustri eichleri Eitschberger, Danner & Surholt, 1992
  • Sphinx ligustri fraxini Dannehl, 1925
  • Sphinx ligustri grisea (Closs, 1917)
  • Sphinx ligustri incerta Tutt, 1904
  • Sphinx ligustri intermedia Tutt, 1904
  • Sphinx ligustri lutescens Tutt, 1904
  • Sphinx ligustri nisseni Rothschild & Jordan, 1916
  • Sphinx ligustri obscura Tutt, 1904
  • Sphinx ligustri pallida Tutt, 1904
  • Sphinx ligustri perversa Gehlen, 1928
  • Sphinx ligustri postrufescens (Lempke, 1959)
  • Sphinx ligustri rosacea Rebel, 1910
  • Sphinx ligustri seydeli Debauche, 1934
  • Sphinx ligustri subpallida Tutt, 1904
  • Sphinx ligustri typica Tutt, 1904
  • Sphinx ligustri unifasciata Gschwandner, 1912
  • Sphinx ligustri weryi Rungs, 1977
  • Sphinx ligustri zolotuhini Eitschberger & Lukhtanov, 1996

Sphinx ligustri, known as the privet hawk moth, is a species of moth found in most of the Palearctic ecozone.

It has a 12 centimetres (4.7 in) wingspan (generally deflexed at rest), and is found in urban areas, forests and woodlands.

The male privet hawk-moth can make a hissing sound, if disturbed, by rubbing together a set of scales and spines at the end of its abdomen.

Their larva is usually found between July and August: buried in the earth preparing to become a pupa. They then fly in the following June.[2]

Diet

As its name describes, the caterpillars feed on privets, as well as ash trees, lilacs, jasmine, and a number of other plants.

References

  1. ↑ "CATE Creating a Taxonomic eScience - Sphingidae". Cate-sphingidae.org. Archived from the original on 2012-11-26. Retrieved 2011-11-01.
  2. ↑ Donovan, Edward (1792). The natural history of British insects: explaining them in their several states, with the periods of their transformations, their food, oeconomy, &c. together with the history of such minute insects as require investigation by the microscope: the whole illustrated by coloured figures, designed and executed from living specimens. London. p. 79.
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