''Marumba sperchius'' is a species of

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of ...

of the family

Sphingidae The Sphingidae are a family of moths ( Lepidoptera) 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, ...

first described by

Édouard Ménétries Édouard Ménétries ( Paris, France, 2 October 1802 – St. Petersburg, Imperial Russia, 10 April 1861) was a French entomologist, zoologist, and herpetologist. He is best known as the founder of the Russian Entomological Society. Ménétries ...

in 1857.

Distribution

It is found from north-western and north-eastern

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

, south-western, central and eastern China to the southern

Russian Far East The Russian Far East (russian: Дальний Восток России, r=Dal'niy Vostok Rossii, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is admin ...

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

and Japan. It is also present on Sumatra and

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java Isl ...

Description

The

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

is 88–138 mm. It is similar to ''

Marumba juvencus ''Marumba juvencus'' is a species of moth of the family Sphingidae first described by Walter Rothschild and Karl Jordan in 1912. Distribution It is known from Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo. The habitat consists of lowland fore ...

'', but the lines of the forewing and the ground colour of the hindwing are more reddish and the lines on either side of the weak discal spot are hardly converge. Marumba sperchius MHNT CUT 2010 0 120 Taiwan female dorsal.jpg, Female, dorsal view Marumba sperchius MHNT CUT 2010 0 120 Taiwan female ventral.jpg, Female, ventral view Marumba sperchius MHNT CUT 2010 0 120 Gifu Japan male dorsal.jpg, Male, dorsal view Marumba sperchius MHNT CUT 2010 0 120 Gifu Japan Male ventral.jpg, Male, ventral view

Biology

There are two generations per year with adults on wing in April and again in August in northern China. In Korea, adults are on wing from late May to late August. The larvae have been recorded feeding on '' Castanea'' (including '' C. crenata''), ''

Castanopsis ''Castanopsis'', commonly called chinquapin or chinkapin, is a genus of evergreen trees belonging to the beech family, Fagaceae. The genus contains about 140 species, which are today restricted to tropical and subtropical eastern Asia. A total ...

'', ''

Quercus An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ' ...

'' (including '' Q. glauca'', '' Q. mongolica'', '' Q. acutissima'', '' Q. myrsinaefolia'', '' Q. acuta'', '' Q. salicina'' and '' Q. serrata''), ''

Castanea crenata ''Castanea crenata'', the Japanese chestnut, also known as the Korean chestnut is a species of chestnut native to Japan and Korea. ''Castanea crenata'' exhibits resistance to ''Phytophthora cinnamomi'', the fungal pathogen that causes ink diseas ...

'', ''

Juglans Walnut trees are any species of tree in the plant genus ''Juglans'', the type genus of the family Juglandaceae, the seeds of which are referred to as walnuts. All species are deciduous trees, tall, with pinnate leaves , with 5–25 leaflets ...

'' (including '' J. regia'' and '' J. mandschurica''), ''

Lithocarpus ''Lithocarpus'' is a genus in the beech family, Fagaceae. Trees in this genus are commonly known as the stone oaks and differ from ''Quercus'' primarily because they produce insect-pollinated flowers on erect spikes and the female flowers ha ...

'' (including '' L. edulis'') and ''

Eriobotrya ''Eriobotrya'' is a genus of flowering plants, mostly large evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosaceae, native to woodland in the Himalayas and East Asia. The loquat, ''E. japonica'', is grown for its edible fruit. ''Eriobotrya'' s ...

'' species. Early

instar An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'', "form", "likeness") is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, between each moult (''ecdysis''), until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to grow o ...

s are pale yellow, while later instars turn bluish green with the tubercles brown or reddish, tipped with white. Oblique stripes are formed of mauve or yellow tubercles on a white ground. The horn is green with paler tubercles.

Subspecies

*''Marumba sperchius sperchius'' (from north-western India across north-eastern India, south-western, central and eastern China to the southern Russian Far East, North Korea, South Korea and Japan) *''Marumba sperchius sumatranus'' Clark, 1923 (Sumatra, Borneo) Marumba Sperchius Sumatranus MHNT CUT 2010 0 210 Sumatra female dorsal.jpg, Female ''M. s. sumatranus'', dorsal view Marumba Sperchius Sumatranus MHNT CUT 2010 0 210 Sumatra female ventral.jpg, Female ''M. s. sumatranus'', ventral view Marumba Sperchius Sumatranus MHNT CUT 2010 0 210 Sumatra male dorsal.jpg, Male ''M. s. sumatranus'', dorsal view Marumba Sperchius Sumatranus MHNT CUT 2010 0 210 Sumatra male ventral.jpg, Male ''M. s. sumatranus'', ventral view

References

Marumba Moths described in 1857 Moths of Japan {{Smerinthini-stub