''Smerinthus ocellatus'', the eyed hawk-moth, is a European

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, ...

. The species was first described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...

in his 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''. The eyespots are not visible in resting position, where the forewings cover them. They are displayed when the moth feels threatened, and may startle a potential

predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill ...

, giving the moth a chance to escape.

Imago

The adult (imago) is very similar in appearance to the other two western

Palaearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Si ...

''Smerinthus'' species, '' Smerinthus caecus'' and '' Smerinthus kindermannii'' but differentiated by an apical thorn on the foretibia, and the large, circular hindwing ocellus. The upperside forewings are marked in light and dark shades of brown and resemble the colouring of bark. The hindwings are pink coloured basally and then a yellow ochre. The hindwings are dominated by a large, blue, dark-centred and black-rimmed eyespot. The thorax has light brown sides and dark brown hairs in the middle. In addition to variations in the density of the forewing pattern intensity, differences in colour are also found on the hindwing. In f. ''flavescens'' Neumann hindwing pink is replaced by yellow in f. ''pallida'' Tutt by grey and in f. ''albescens'' Tutt. In f. ''rosea'' Bartel, the pink is deep and the forewings are yellowish brown; in f. ''ollivryi'' Oberthür, the ocellus is replaced by a buff brown patch. The adult moth has a wingspan of . Smerinthus ocellatus MHNT CUT 2010 0 330 Autouillet, Yvelines, France, male dorsal.jpg, ''Smerinthus ocellata'' ♂ Smerinthus ocellatus MHNT CUT 2010 0 330 Autouillet, Yvelines, France, male ventral.jpg, ''Smerinthus ocellata'' ♂ △ Smerinthus ocellatus MHNT Female dos.jpg, ''Smerinthus ocellata''♀ Smerinthus ocellatus MHNT Female ventre.jpg, ''Smerinthus ocellata'' ♀ △ Abendpfauenauge,_Paarung_in_Schreckstellung_im_Geo-Naturpark_Bergstraße-Odenwald.jpg, ♂ and ♀ mating

Historical description

Edward Newman described it thus:

The Eyed Hawk-Moth, so called from a large and beautiful spot in each of the hind wings that somewhat resembles an eye. The fore wings are brown, with a very beautiful reddish bloom over them, and clouded with olive-brown. The hind wings are of a delicate rosy red at the base, and a pale brown towards the margin; and each has a large and beautiful eye-like spot, grey in the centre, surrounded with blue, and the blue surrounded by a black ring. The skin of the caterpillar is rough, like
shagreen Shagreen is a type of rawhide consisting of rough untanned skin, historically from a horse's or onager's back, or from shark or ray. Etymology The word derives from the French ''chagrin'' and is related to Italian ''zigrino'' and Venetian ...
; it is pale green, sprinkled with white, and has seven oblique white stripes on each side. The horn at the tail is blue. It is very common in the autumn, feeding on apple trees in gardens, and on willow bushes in hedges. The chrysalis is red-brown, and glossy. The Moth is found about Midsummer.

Larva

The larva (caterpillar) is pale bluish or yellowish green with small white-tipped tubercules and a grey-blue tail horn. The sides are striped white or yellow and the spiracles are white ringed with dark red. The larvae grow to about 80 mm. The larval food plants are various species of ''

Salix Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist s ...

'', ''

Populus ''Populus'' is a genus of 25–30 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar (), aspen, and cottonwood. The we ...

'' and ''

Malus ''Malus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 30–55 species of small deciduous trees or shrubs in the family Rosaceae, including the domesticated orchard apple, crab apples, wild apples, and rainberries. The genus is native to the temperate zo ...

''.Carter, D. J. and Hargreaves, B. (1986) ''A Field Guide to Caterpillars of Butterflies and Moths in Britain and Europe''. Collins, London.

Pupa

The pupa is glossy reddish brown, and is formed below the soil surface in late summer, where it overwinters. The adults emerge the following summer in May or June.

Subspecies

*''Smerinthus ocellatus ocellatus'' *''Smerinthus ocellatus atlanticus'' Austaut, 1890 (confined to the Atlas Mountains and their surrounding lowlands, from Morocco to Tunisia) *''Smerinthus atlanticus protai'' Speidel & Kaltenbach, 1981 (Sardinia and Corsica) ''Smerinthus ocellatus atlanticus'' is sometimes treated as a full species, in which case ''Smerinthus atlanticus protai'' is placed as a subspecies of this species, rather than ''Smerinthus ocellatus''. Smerinthus ocellatus atlanticus MHNT CUT 2010 0 330 Cherchell, Algérie, male dorsal.jpg, ''Smerinthus ocellata atlanticus'' ♂ Smerinthus ocellatus atlanticus MHNT CUT 2010 0 330 Cherchell, Algérie, male ventral.jpg, ''Smerinthus ocellata atlanticus'' ♂ △

Nomenclatural note

The name ''Smerinthus'' is apparently derived from the Greek feminine noun 'Merinthos', but has been Latinised with the masculine -us ending and is thus, according to the

ICZN The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is a widely accepted convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific naming of organisms treated as animals. It is also informally known as the ICZN Code, for its publisher, the Int ...

article 30.1.3,International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, 4th Edition, 1999
Article 30.1.3. masculine.Paclt, J. (1978)
"The Nomenclature in an important British checklist (1972): part 4: correct gender for some other generic names"
''Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera''. 17: 24-26. As the ICZN rules that species names that are adjectives should agree in gender with the genus name, the common use of ''Smerinthus ocellata'' for this species is incorrect.

References

External links

* Description in Richard South's ''The Moths of the British Isles'' *
"06822 ''Smerinthus ocellata'' (Linnaeus, 1758) - Abendpfauenauge"
''Lepiforum e.V.''. Retrieved December 20, 2018. {{Taxonbar , from=Q318989 Smerinthus Moths described in 1758 Moths of Europe Moths of Asia Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus