White-streaked Hawkmoth: report on the range extension of Clanidopsis exusta (Butler, 1875) from Bhutan (original) (raw)

A first record of Clanis hyperion Cadiou & Kitching, 1990 (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) in Bhutan, and a preliminary checklist of the hawkmoths of Mendrelgang, Bhutan.

Journal of Threatened Taxa, 2014

An inventory of hawkmoths (Sphingidae) of Mendrelgang division of Tsirang District, Bhutan was undertaken between December 2011 and September 2012. A total of 27 species was recorded belonging to three subfamilies. The most notable was Clanis hyperion Cadiou & Kitching 1990. The present record extends the known distribution of C. hyperion to the eastern Himalaya, and significantly it is the first record of the species from northwest of the Brahmaputra River. Keyword : Checklist, Clanis hyperion, eastern Himalaya, range extension. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o3399.5386-8 ZB: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:F668ACE2-5132-4343-89BE-B64B143E3D00

Diversity of hawkmoths in Tashigang Forest Division, with new faunistic records for Bhutan

Journal of Animal Diversity, 2022

Hawkmoths are a charismatic, diverse group of moths that are well-studied worldwide. In this study, we explored and presented the first ever comprehensive hawkmoth checklist for Tashigang Forest Division, Bhutan with five new taxa records for the country. We conducted fauna exploration over a period of five years (2017-2021). Data were collected opportunistically from twelve different localities. Online database and the current literature on hawkmoths of Bhutan were referred to for correct species identifications and nomenclature. We recorded a total of 48 species belonging to 23 genera and four subfamilies. Macroglossinae Harris, 1839 was the most dominant subfamily with 29 species, followed by Smerinthinae Grote & Robinson, 1865 with 14 species, Sphinginae Latreille, [1802] with four and Langiinae Tutt, 1904 with one species. Ampelophaga thomasi Kitching and Cadiou, Cechetra subangustata Rothschild, Macroglossum saga Butler, Rhagastis confusa Rothschild and Jordan, and Notonagemia analis R. Felder are here reported as representing five new records to Bhutan. Further investigation in the area and in other parts of Bhutan appear necessary to discover more hawkmoth species and reveal endemism.

Phylogeny and Biogeography of Hawkmoths (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae): Evidence from Five Nuclear Genes

PLoS ONE, 2009

Background: The 1400 species of hawkmoths (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) comprise one of most conspicuous and wellstudied groups of insects, and provide model systems for diverse biological disciplines. However, a robust phylogenetic framework for the family is currently lacking. Morphology is unable to confidently determine relationships among most groups. As a major step toward understanding relationships of this model group, we have undertaken the first large-scale molecular phylogenetic analysis of hawkmoths representing all subfamilies, tribes and subtribes. Methodology/Principal Findings: The data set consisted of 131 sphingid species and 6793 bp of sequence from five protein-coding nuclear genes. Maximum likelihood and parsimony analyses provided strong support for more than twothirds of all nodes, including strong signal for or against nearly all of the fifteen current subfamily, tribal and sub-tribal groupings. Monophyly was strongly supported for some of these, including Macroglossinae, Sphinginae, Acherontiini, Ambulycini, Philampelini, Choerocampina, and Hemarina. Other groupings proved para-or polyphyletic, and will need significant redefinition; these include Smerinthinae, Smerinthini, Sphingini, Sphingulini, Dilophonotini, Dilophonotina, Macroglossini, and Macroglossina. The basal divergence, strongly supported, is between Macroglossinae and Smerinthinae+Sphinginae. All genes contribute significantly to the signal from the combined data set, and there is little conflict between genes. Ancestral state reconstruction reveals multiple separate origins of New World and Old World radiations. Conclusions/Significance: Our study provides the first comprehensive phylogeny of one of the most conspicuous and wellstudied insects. The molecular phylogeny challenges current concepts of Sphingidae based on morphology, and provides a foundation for a new classification. While there are multiple independent origins of New World and Old World radiations, we conclude that broad-scale geographic distribution in hawkmoths is more phylogenetically conserved than previously postulated.

A revised molecular phylogeny of the globally distributed hawkmoth genus Hyles (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae), based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences

Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 2009

The hawkmoth genus Hyles comprises some 29 species with a global distribution. In this study, we augment the previous taxon sampling with more species and add sequences from a nuclear gene to produce a refined phylogenetic hypothesis. A total evidence reconstruction based on Bayesian analysis of the combined mitochondrial (COI, t-RNA-Leu, COII; 2284 bp) and nuclear (EF1a; 773 bp) sequences is discussed and compared with the results from separate analyses of the two genes. The total evidence phylogeny corroborates many of the phylogenetic relationships previously postulated within the genus. In addition, the hitherto unsampled enigmatic species Hyles biguttata from Madagascar appears as sister group to Hyles livornicoides from Australia, although support for the relationship is relatively weak. The high level of differentiation of Hyles perkinsi from H. calida (both Hawaii), and the status of these two as sister species, is corroborated by both sources of sequence data. However, their phylogenetic position when mt DNA sequences alone are considered differs markedly from that under total evidence. The previously postulated relationships within the Hyles euphorbiae complex (HEC) s.s. are largely corroborated, but H. dahlii is now more closely related and the HEC s.l. is redefined to include H. zygophylli and H. stroehlei (two species that had not been studied previously using molecular data) and to exclude H. siehei and H. hippophaes. The nuclear sequences alone are insufficiently variable to fully resolve all lineages and the phylogeny suggests that nuclear gene swapping and incomplete lineage sorting have occurred implying recent divergence. The results from the total evidence analysis provide a phylogenetic hypothesis that both corroborates and complements the previous biogeographic scenario, and provides new insights into the origins of several of the included taxa.

DNA barcodes in identification of some species of hawkmoths (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae)

Academia Journal of Biology, 2022

The use of DNA barcodes is a molecular method commonly used for the identification of specimens that are difficult to pinpoint accurately by traditional morphological methods. DNA barcoding uses standard short genomic regions that are universally present in target lineages and has sufficient sequence variation to identify species in the genus. The hawkmoth genus Cechetra (Zolotuhin & Ryabov, 2012) was proposed for a group of morphologically similar, stripe-patterned species. Based on the seven specimens of the three species of Cechetra genus collected from the Central of Vietnam, we used morphological analysis to initially identified their scientific name of Cechetra lineosa (Walker, 1856) for 04 specimens (LB_F01, LB_G01, LB_H01 and LK_G05); 02 specimens (MK_H04 and MK_B07) were identified with the scientific name of Cechetra minor (Butler, 1875) and 01 specimen (SG_D7) with scientific name Cechetra subangustata (Rothschild, 1920). Then, the COI (Cytochrome C oxidase I) sequence wa...

A preliminary study of the hawkmoth diversity (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) of Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu, India

Journal of Threatened Taxa, 2019

Kanyakumari District is situated at the southernmost tip of peninsular India in Tamil Nadu State and is bounded by the Western Ghats and the coasts of three seas. There are no detailed historical records of the moths of this region, which, before India’s independence, was part of Travancore State. This paper presents a brief account of the 27 species of hawkmoths of Kanyakumari District, recorded during surveys conducted from 2011-2015, and is the first formal record of the hawkmoths of this region. A list of the species from the collection of the Natural History Museum, UK, collected in the erstwhile Travancore State that are likely to be found in the Kanyakumari region is also included.