Hemaris tityus

Narrow-bordered bee hawk-moth
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Sphingidae
Genus:	Hemaris
Species:	H. tityus
Binomial name
	Hemaris tityus; (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
	Sphinx tityus Linnaeus, 1758; Sphinx musca Retzius, 1783; Sphinx bombyliformis Linnaeus, 1758; Macroglossa scabiosae Zeller, 1869; Macroglossa knautiae Zeller, 1869; Hemaris tityus reducta Closs, 1917; Hemaris tityus karaugomica Wojtusiak & Niesiolowski, 1946; Hemaris tityus flavescens Cockayne, 1953; Haemorrhagia tityus ferrugineus Stephan, 1924;

Hemaris tityus, the narrow-bordered bee hawk-moth, is a moth of the family Sphingidae which is native to the Palearctic.

Range[edit]

It has a wide range, from Ireland across temperate Europe to the Ural Mountains, western Siberia, Novosibirsk and the Altai. It is also known from the Tian Shan eastwards across Mongolia to north-eastern China and southwards to Tibet. There is a separate population found from Turkey to northern Iran.

Biology[edit]

It appears in May and June and is a lively day-flier (unlike most other sphingids), generally active from mid-morning to mid-afternoon.^[2] It frequents marshy woodland and damp moorland, and has a wide distribution across temperate Europe and Western Asia, but is generally quite scarce. The larvae feed on devil's-bit scabious (Succisa pratensis) and field scabious (Knautia arvensis).

Identification[edit]

It is distinguished from H. fuciformis by the narrow band of scaling along the outer wing margin, and the forewing's undivided discal cell. It has a wingspan of 40–50 millimetres (1.6–2.0 in). It is one of two similar species of sphingid moth occurring in Britain that closely mimic a bumblebee.

Hemaris tityus ♂
Hemaris tityus ♂ △
Hemaris tityus ♀
Hemaris tityus ♀ △

Pictures[edit]

Caterpillar and adult in John Curtis's British Entomology, Volume 5
caterpillar, Romania
Adult feeding
Figs. 4, 4a larvae after last moult

References[edit]

^ "CATE Creating a Taxonomic eScience - Sphingidae". Cate-sphingidae.org. Archived from the original on 2012-11-10. Retrieved 2011-10-19.
^ Pittaway, A. R. (2018). "Hemaris tityus (Linnaeus, 1758)". Sphingidae of the Western Palaearctic. Retrieved December 18, 2018.

External links[edit]

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[1] "CATE Creating a Taxonomic eScience - Sphingidae". Cate-sphingidae.org. Archived from the original on 2012-11-10. Retrieved 2011-10-19.

[2] Pittaway, A. R. (2018). "Hemaris tityus (Linnaeus, 1758)". Sphingidae of the Western Palaearctic. Retrieved December 18, 2018.

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