''Cephonodes hylas'', the coffee bee hawkmoth, pellucid hawk moth or coffee clearwing, is a

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

of the family

Sphingidae The Sphingidae are a family of moths commonly called sphinx moths, also colloquially known as hawk moths, with many of their caterpillars known as hornworms. It includes about 1,450 species. It is best represented in the tropics, but species ar ...

. The species was first described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

in 1771. A widely distributed moth, it is found in the

Near East The Near East () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th ...

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

, Africa,

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Description

It has transparent wings and a stout body like a bumble bee. Its

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

of 45–73 mm. Its marginal borders are very narrow and black. The abdomen varies in colour from yellow to green. Nominate subspecies has bright reddish 3rd and 4th abdominal segments. Larva has two colour forms, green and blackish. In greenish form, the body is greenish with a white-bordered blue dorsal line and a whitish sub-dorsal line ending in a yellow streak at the base of the horn. The head and spiracles are blue. In the dark-coloured form, the head is brown or pale orange and the rest of the body is smoky black. The pupa is dark brown. Cephonodes hylas hyles MHNT CUT 2010 0 138 Pokhara Nepal male dorsal.jpg, Dorsal male
(from the collection of the MHNT) Cephonodes hylas hyles MHNT CUT 2010 0 138 Pokhara Nepal male ventral.jpg, Ventral male
(coll. MHNT) Cephonodes hylas hyles MHNT CUT 2010 0 138 Mae Tha Lamphun Thailand female dorsal.jpg, Dorsal female
(coll. MHNT) Cephonodes hylas hyles MHNT CUT 2010 0 138 Mae Tha Lamphun Thailand female ventral.jpg, Ventral female
(coll. MHNT)

Ecology

Larvae are sluggish but eat very greedily and continuously. Its larvae feed on '' Burchellia'', ''

Gardenia ''Gardenia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the coffee family, Rubiaceae, native to the tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Asia, Madagascar, Pacific Islands, and Australia. The genus was named by Carl Linnaeus and John Ellis after ...

'', '' Kraussia'', '' Pavetta'' and '' Vangueria'' species.

Parasitoid In evolutionary ecology, a parasitoid is an organism that lives in close association with its host (biology), host at the host's expense, eventually resulting in the death of the host. Parasitoidism is one of six major evolutionarily stable str ...

s such as '' Ooencyrtus papilionis'' and '' Blepharipa zebrine'' are found on larva.

Subspecies

*''Cephonodes hylas hylas'' - (Linnaeus 1771) (Sri Lanka to China and Japan) *''Cephonodes hylas australis'' - Kitching & Cadiou, 2000 (Australia) *''Cephonodes hylas melanogaster'' - Cadiou, 1998 (Indonesia) *''Cephonodes hylas virescens'' - (Wallengren, 1865) (Ethiopian Region including Madagascar and the Seychelles) File:Cephonodes hylas (Bee hawkmoth) on Catunaregam spinosa W IMG 9507.jpg, ''Cephonodes hylas'' larvae on '' Catunaregam spinosa'' in

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

, India File:Cephonodes hylas (Bee hawkmoth) on Catunaregam spinosa W IMG 9509.jpg, ''Cephonodes hylas'' larvae on ''Catunaregam spinosa'' in Hyderabad File:Cephonodes hylas (Bee hawkmoth) on Catunaregam spinosa W IMG 9506.jpg, ''Cephonodes hylas'' larvae on ''Catunaregam spinosa'' in Hyderabad File:Cephonodes hylas (Bee hawkmoth) on Catunaregam spinosa W IMG 9469.jpg, ''Cephonodes hylas'' larvae on ''Catunaregam spinosa'' in Hyderabad File:Pellucid hawk moth.JPG, Pellucid hawk moth in

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

, India

References

Cephonodes Moths described in 1771 Moths of Africa Moths of Japan Moths of Madagascar Moths of the Middle East Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Dilophonotini-stub