Sphingidae

For a complete species list of this family, see Sphingidae species list.

Hawk moths
Hummingbird hawk moth Macroglossum stellatarum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
(unranked):	Macrolepidoptera
Superfamily:	Bombycoidea
Family:	Sphingidae Latreille, 1802
Type species
Sphinx ligustri Linnaeus, 1758
Subfamilies
Macroglossinae Smerinthinae Sphinginae
Diversity
About 200 genera, roughly 1,450 species

The Sphingidae are a family of moths (Lepidoptera), commonly known as hawk moths, sphinx moths, and hornworms; it includes about 1,450 species. It is best represented in the tropics, but species are found in every region. They are moderate to large in size and are distinguished among moths for their rapid, sustained flying ability. Their narrow wings and streamlined abdomens are adaptations for rapid flight.

Some hawk moths, such as the hummingbird hawk moth or the white-lined sphinx, hover in midair while they feed on nectar from flowers, so are sometimes mistaken for hummingbirds. This hovering capability is only known to have evolved four times in nectar feeders: in hummingbirds, certain bats, hoverflies, and these sphingids (an example of convergent evolution). Sphingids have been much studied for their flying ability, especially their ability to move rapidly from side to side while hovering, called 'swing-hovering' or 'side-slipping'. This is thought to have evolved to deal with ambush predators that lie in wait in flowers.

Sphingids are some of the faster flying insects; some are capable of flying at over 5.3 m/s (12 miles per hour). They have wingspans from 4 to over 10 cm.

Lifecycle

Vine hawk moth larva (Hippotion celerio)

Most species are multivoltine, capable of producing several generations a year if weather conditions permit. Females lay translucent, greenish, flattened, smooth eggs, usually singly on the host plants. Egg development time varies highly, from three to 21 days.

A Hyles gallii caterpillar seeking a place to pupate: the colour of the caterpillar darkens before pupation.

Sphingid caterpillars are medium to large in size, with stout bodies. They have five pairs of prolegs. Usually, their bodies lack any hairs or tubercules, but most species have a "horn" at the posterior end, which may be reduced to a button, or absent, in the final instar. Many are cryptic greens and browns, and have countershading patterns to conceal them. Others are more conspicuously coloured, typically with white spots on a black or yellow background along the length of the body. A pattern of diagonal slashes along the side is a common feature. When resting, the larva usually holds its legs off the surface and tucks its head underneath (praying position), which, resembling the Egyptian Sphinx, gives rise to the name 'sphinx moth'. Some tropical larvae are thought to mimic snakes. Larvae are quick to regurgitate their sticky, often toxic, foregut contents on attackers such as ants and parasitoids. Development rate depends on temperature, and to speed development, some northern and high-altitude species sunbathe. Larvae burrow into soil to pupate, where they remain for 2–3 weeks before they emerge as adults.

In some Sphingidae, the pupa has a free proboscis, rather than being fused to the pupal case as is most common in the Macrolepidoptera. They have a cremaster at the tip of the abdomen. Usually, they pupate off the host plant, in an underground chamber, among rocks, or in a loose cocoon. In most species, the pupa is the overwintering stage.

A feeding hawk moth at Olympiaki Akti (Greece)

Description

Antennae are generally not very feathery, even in the males. They lack tympanal organs, but members of the group Choerocampini have hearing organs on their heads. They have a frenulum and retinaculum to join hind wings and fore wings. The thorax, abdomen, and wings are densely covered in scales. Some sphingids have a rudimental proboscis, but most have a very long one, which is used to feed on nectar from flowers. Most are crepuscular or nocturnal, but some species fly during the day. Both males and females are relatively long-lived (living 10 to 30 days). Prior to flight, most species shiver their flight muscles to warm them up, and, during flight, body temperatures may surpass 40 °C.

In some species, differences in form between the sexes is quite marked. For example, in the African species Herse convolvuli (the convolvulus or morning glory hawk moth), the antennae are thicker and wing markings more mottled in the male than in the female. Only males have both an undivided frenular hook and a retinaculum. Also, all male hawk moths have a partial comb of hairs along their antennae. Females call males to them with pheromones. The male may douse the female with a pheromone before mating.

Behaviour

Some species fly only for short periods either around dusk or dawn, while other species only appear later in the evening and others around midnight, but such species may occasionally be seen feeding at flowers during the day. A few common species in Africa, such as Cephonodes hylas virescens (the Oriental bee hawk), Leucostrophus hirundo, and Macroglossum trochilus, are diurnal.

Flight

In studies with Manduca sexta, moths have dynamic flight sensory abilities due to their antennae. The antennae are vibrated in a plane so that when the body of the moth rotates during controlled aerial maneuvers, the antennae are subject to the inertial coriolis forces that are linearly proportional to the angular velocity of the body. The coriolis forces cause deflections of the antennae, which are detected by the Johnston's organ at the base of each antenna, with strong frequency responses at the beat frequency of the antennae (around 25 Hz) and at twice the beat frequency. The relative magnitude of the two frequency responses enables the moth to distinguish rotation around the different principal axes, allowing for rapid course control during aerial maneuvers.

Food plants

Larvae

Bee hawk moth (Cephonodes kingii), Crows Nest, New South Wales

Sphingid larvae tend to be specific feeders, rather than generalists. Compared to similarly sized saturniids, sphingids eat soft young leaves of host plants with small toxic molecules, and chew and mash the food into very small bits. Some species can tolerate quite high concentrations of specific toxins. Tobacco hornworms, Manduca sexta, detoxify and rapidly excrete nicotine, as do several other related sphinx moths in the subfamilies Sphinginae and Macroglossinae, but members of the Smerinthinae that were tested are susceptible. The species that are able to tolerate the toxin do not sequester it in their tissues; 98% was excreted. However, other species, such as Hyles euphorbiae and Daphnis nerii, do sequester toxins from their hosts, but do not pass them on to the adult stage.

Adults

Hemaris thysbe or hummingbird clearwing moth feeding on lantana flowers

Most adults feed on nectar, although a few tropical species feed on eye secretions, and the death's-head hawkmoth steals honey from bees. Night-flying sphingids tend to prefer pale flowers with long corolla tubes and a sweet odour, a pollination syndrome known as 'sphingophily'. Some species are quite general in visitations, while others are very specific, with the plant only being successfully pollinated by a particular species of moth. Orchids frequently have such specific relations with hawk moths, and very long corolla tubes. The comet orchid, Angraecum sesquipedale, a rare Malagasy flower with its nectar stored at the bottom of a 30-cm-long tube, was described in 1822 by Aubert du Petit-Thouars, and later, Charles Darwin famously predicted there must be some specialised animal to feed from it:

"[A. sesquipetale has] nectaries 11 and a half inches long, with only the lower inch and a half filled with very sweet nectar [...] it is, however, surprising, that any insect should be able to reach the nectar: our English sphinxes have probosces as long as their bodies, but in Madagascar there must be moths with probosces capable of extension to a length of between 10 and 12 inches!"

Alfred Russel Wallace published a sort of "wanted poster" (properly, a drawing in a book) of what this butterfly might look like, and, concurring with his colleague, added:

"[The proboscis of a hawk moth] from tropical Africa ([Xanthopan] morganii) is seven inches and a half. A species having a proboscis two or three inches longer could reach the nectar in the largest flowers of Angræcum sesquipedale, whose nectaries vary in length from ten to fourteen inches. That such a moth exists in Madagascar may be safely predicted, and naturalists who visit that island should search for it with as much confidence as astronomers searched for the planet Neptune, – and they will be equally successful."

A possible species was discovered 21 years later, for which the hawk moth in question was found and described as a subspecies of the one mentioned by Wallace: Xanthopan morganii praedicta, for which, the subspecific name praedicta ("the predicted one") was given. The subspecies has, however, been subsequently declared as invalid due to its similarity to mainland species.

Representative species

Oleander hawk moth (Daphnis nerii), in Mangaon, Maharashtra

Around 1,450 species of hawk moths are classified into around 200 genera. Some of the best-known species are:

• Privet hawkmoth (Sphinx ligustri)
• Death's-head hawk moth (Acherontia atropos)
• Lime hawk moth (Mimas tiliae)
• Poplar hawk moth (Laothoe populi)
• Convolvulus hawk moth (Agrius convolvuli)
• Catalpa sphinx (Ceratomia catalpae)
• Hummingbird hawk moth (Macroglossum stellatarum)
• Elephant hawk moth (Deilephila elpenor)
• Vine hawk moth (Hippotion celerio)
• Spurge hawk moth (Hyles euphorbiae)
• Oleander hawk moth (Daphnis nerii)
• Pandora sphinx moth (Eumorpha pandorus)
• Tomato worm (Manduca quinquemaculata)

In popular culture

John Linnell, of the rock band They Might Be Giants, reportedly wrote the song "Bee of the Bird of the Moth" (on their album The Else) after he saw a "hummingbird moth", presumably one of the members of this family that resembles a hummingbird.

Edgar Allan Poe includes a sphinx moth in his short story, "The Sphinx". The main character mistakenly thinks the moth on a window is a huge monster. Much to his surprise, his friend points out it is, in fact, very close and not on a hill in the distance.

In the 1991 film Silence of the Lambs, Buffalo Bill puts sphinx moths in the throats of his victims after he kills them. A sphinx moth is also featured on the cover.

The show The Ghost Whisperer has a reference to the sphinx moth when they fly out of a girl's locker.

See also

• Sphingidae species list
• List of moths of India
• List of moths of Great Britain (Sphingidae)

External links

• European Butterflies and Moths
• Sphingidae at Lepidoptera.pro
• Images of Sphingidae of Costa Rica.
• Images of Sphingidae species in New Zealand
• List of Sphingidae Types from Museum Witt München.
• Flickr Images