''Sataspes tagalica'', the brilliant carpenter-bee hawkmoth, 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

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 entom ...

in 1875.

Distribution

It is known from 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 ...

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is ma ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

, eastern and southern China and

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

. The habitat consists of woodland margins and shady tracks through woodland, particularly near bodies of fresh water.

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 56–70 mm. Sataspes tagalica MHNT CUT 2011 0 137 Chiang Dao Thailand male dorsal.jpg, Male dorsal view Sataspes tagalica MHNT CUT 2011 0 137 Chiang Dao Thailand male ventral.jpg, Male ventral view Sataspes tagalica MHNT CUT 2011 0 137 Man River Dan Sai Thailand female dorsal.jpg, Female dorsal view Sataspes tagalica MHNT CUT 2011 0 137 Man River Dan Sai Thailand female ventral.jpg, Female ventral view

Biology

It is a day-flying species. Adults are attracted to the flowers of ''

Duranta erecta ''Duranta erecta'' is a species of Flowering plant, flowering shrub in the verbena family Verbenaceae, native from Mexico to South America and the Caribbean. It is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant in Tropics, tropical and Subtropics, sub ...

'' and ''

Lantana camara ''Lantana camara'' (common lantana) is a species of flowering plant within the verbena family (Verbenaceae), native to the American tropics. It is a very adaptable species, which can inhabit a wide variety of ecosystems; once it has been introduc ...

''. The larvae have been recorded feeding on ''

Dalbergia benthamii ''Dalbergia'' is a large genus of small to medium-size trees, shrubs and lianas in the pea family, Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae. It was recently assigned to the informal monophyly, monophyletic ''Dalbergia'' clade (or tribe): the Dalbergi ...

'' in Hong Kong.

References

Sataspes (moth) Moths described in 1875 Moths of Asia Taxa named by Jean Baptiste Boisduval {{Smerinthini-stub