''Hyles tithymali'', the Barbary spurge hawk-moth, is a species of

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 ...

in 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 ...

first described by

Jean Baptiste Boisduval Jean Baptiste Alphonse Déchauffour de Boisduval (24 June 1799 – 30 December 1879) was a French lepidopterist, botanist, and physician. He was one of the most celebrated lepidopterists of France, and was the co-founder of the Société ento ...

in 1834. Genomic analysis places the entire species as a subspecies of

Hyles euphorbiae ''Hyles euphorbiae'', the spurge hawk-moth, is a European moth of the family Sphingidae. This hawk moth is used as an agent of biological pest control against the noxious weed leafy spurge (''Euphorbia virgata''), but usually only in conjunction ...

. It is found in

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

, the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

, some islands in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

and in the mountains in

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

. The length of the forewings is 45–85 mm. The larvae feed on ''

Euphorbia ''Euphorbia'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, commonly called spurge, in the family (biology), family Euphorbiaceae. Euphorbias range from tiny annual plants to large and long-lived trees, with perhaps the tallest being ''Eu ...

''. It is thought that ''Hyles tithymali'' had a much larger range in Europe, but has been pushed further south after the cooling 3600 years ago. Its place has been taken over by strains of ''

'' which are more resistant to the cold. Because of this, many isolated populations exist today, many of which have developed into distinct subspecies.

Subspecies

The following subspecies are recognised: *''H. t. tithymali'' (Boisduval, 1834) (Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura islands) *''H. t. mauretanica'' (Staudinger, 1871) (North Africa) *''H. t. deserticola'' (Staudinger, 1901) (North Africa) *''H. t. gecki'' (de Freina, 1991) (Madeira island) *''H. t. phaelipae'' Gil-T. & Gil-Uceda, 2007 (El Hierro and La Palma islands) *''H. t. himyarensis'' Meerman, 1988 (Yemen) *''H. t. cretica'' (Eitschberger, Danner & Surholt, 1998) (Creta island) *''H. t. gallaeci'' Gil-T., Requejo & Estévez, 2011 (north-western Iberian Peninsula, Galicia Region, Spain) - The taxon ''sammuti'' ''H. t. sammuti'' (Eitschberger, Danner & Surholt, 1998)according to molecular studies is a hybrid from ''H. euphorbiae'' × ''H. tithymali''. - ''Hyles tithymali cretica'' is regarded, according to authors, as a full species or as a hybrid from ''H. euphorbiae'' × ''H. tithymali''. - The taxonomic final status of the taxon ''gallaeci'' Gil-T., Requejo & Estévez, 2011 (larvae very similar to other taxa of the ''tithymali'' group) is awaiting a study molecular (not only of its mitochondrial DNA, but also of its nuclear DNA). Hyles tithymali mauretanica MHNT CUT 2010 0 133 Ifrane Maroc dorsal.jpg, ''H. t. mauretanica'' - dorsal side Hyles tithymali mauretanica MHNT CUT 2010 0 133 Ifrane Maroc ventral.jpg, ''H. t. mauretanica'' - ventral side Image:Hyles.tithymali.deserticola.jpg, ''H. t. deserticola'' Image:Hyles.tithymali.mauretanica.jpg, ''H. t. mauretanica''

References

External links

* * Hyles (moth) Moths described in 1834 Insects of the Canary Islands Moths of Europe Moths of Africa Taxa named by Jean Baptiste Boisduval {{Macroglossini-stub