Sphinx ligustri
Privet hawk moth | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Lepidoptera |
Family: | Sphingidae |
Genus: | Sphinx |
Species: | S. ligustri |
Binomial name | |
Sphinx ligustri Linnaeus, 1758[1] | |
Synonyms | |
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Sphinx ligustri, known as the privet hawk moth, is a species of moth found in most of the Palearctic ecozone.
It has a 12 centimetres (4.7 in) wingspan (generally deflexed at rest), and is found in urban areas, forests and woodlands.
The male privet hawk-moth can make a hissing sound, if disturbed, by rubbing together a set of scales and spines at the end of its abdomen.
Their larva is usually found between July and August: buried in the earth preparing to become a pupa. They then fly in the following June.[2]
Diet
As its name describes, the caterpillars feed on privets, as well as ash trees, lilacs, jasmine, and a number of other plants.
Gallery
- Caterpillar
- Pupating
- Pupa
- Pupa, caterpillar, and adult
References
- ↑ "CATE Creating a Taxonomic eScience - Sphingidae". Cate-sphingidae.org. Archived from the original on 2012-11-26. Retrieved 2011-11-01.
- ↑ Donovan, Edward (1792). The natural history of British insects: explaining them in their several states, with the periods of their transformations, their food, oeconomy, &c. together with the history of such minute insects as require investigation by the microscope: the whole illustrated by coloured figures, designed and executed from living specimens. London. p. 79.
- Pittaway, Tony, Sphingidae of the Western Palaearctic, retrieved 2009-08-02
- http://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?id=401 - The entry for this species on UKMoths
- http://australianmuseum.net.au/Privet-Hawk-Moth - The entry for this species on Australian Museum
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