Wikipedia

Hemaris aethra

Hemaris aethra, the Diervilla clearwing, is a moth in the family Sphingidae (subfamily Macroglossinae). It is native to the northern United States and southern Canada. Like H. diffinis, with which it shares some of its range, H. aethra is a bumblebee mimic.

Hemaris aethra
Adult Hemaris aethra moth resting on a leaf in the sunlight
Adult resting on a leaf

Apparently Secure  (NatureServe)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Sphingidae
Genus: Hemaris
Species:
H. aethra
Binomial name
Hemaris aethra
(Strecker, 1875)
Synonyms
  • Macroglossa æthra (Strecker, 1875)[1]
  • Macroglossa diffinis (Maassen, 1880)[2]
  • Hemaris diffinis f. (Smith, 1900)[3]
  • Haemorrhagia diffinis diffinis f. aest. axillaris (Rothschild & Jordan, 1903)[4]
  • Haemorrhagia diffinis aethra (Barnes & McDunnough, 1910)[5]
A Hemaris aethra specimen rests on a foam board in a display box. The handwritten label below it reads: "Hemaris diffinis. Snowberry hawkmoth. Atikokan, Ontario. June 21, 1981."
A Hemaris aethra specimen from the 1980s labelled as Hemaris diffinis
Colored illustration of a Hemaris aethra adult, hand-drawn on paper
Herman Strecker's illustration (pl. xiii, fig. 2, c. 1876)
A large green caterpillar. It has a dark horn protruding from its tail end and a yellow band behind the head. It is crawling on the stem of a northern bush honeysuckle plant and feeding on the leaves.
Caterpillar (green morph)
Adult Hemaris aethra moth hovering to feed on nectar from a dandelion. Its proboscis is extended.
Adult nectaring on a dandelion
Adult Hemaris aethra moth hovering at a small pink flower. Its proboscis is curled.
Adult with curled proboscis

After having long been treated as a subspecies of H. diffinis due to difficulty in distinguishing them morphologically, H. aethra was elevated to species status in 2018.

Etymology

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The specific name, aethra, comes from Ancient Greek [[wikt:Αἴθρα#Ancient Greek|Αἴθρα]] (romanized: Aíthra), meaning "bright sky".[6][a] Several women in Greek myth bear this name; the exact namesake Strecker had in mind is not clear.

Taxonomy

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History

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       Strecker's description of the type specimen:

       MACROGLOSSA ÆTHRA, Nov. Sp. or Var.
       Female. Expands 1+7⁄8 inches.
       Above, head and body olivaceous of a paler shade towards the sides; caudal brush yellow and black; beneath same as Diffinis. Primaries, margin much broader than in Diffinis and serrated on inner edge; a large carmine apical spot; base and interior margin reddish with olivaceous hairs on the former. Inferiors, narrow brown exterior margin; abdominal margin carmine; beneath, costa of both wings red. One example from Montreal, Canada; from Mr. P. Knetzing.
       If this be not a new species, it is certainly a most remarkable or aberrant form of Diffinis; the total absence of the broad black transverse band of upper side of abdomen is a most noticeable feature, as well as the entirely red costa of all wings beneath.[1]

  • Strecker (1875) described the moth as Macroglossa æthra based on a female specimen from Montreal, identifying it as either a novel species or a "most remarkable aberrant form of Diffinis [sic]".[1]
  • Maassen (1880) disagreed with Strecker on aethra being a distinct species, considering it a variety of Macroglossa diffinis.[2]
  • Kirby (1892) recognized species Hemaris aethra, relegating Haemorrhagia (Grote & Robinson 1865) to junior synonymy with Hemaris (Dalman 1816),[7] though Haemorrhagia would remain in use for several decades.
  • Smith (1900), based on Strecker's illustration and Smith's own observations of ostensible aethra specimens, concluded that aethra was likely a form of diffinis.[3]
  • Rothschild & Jordan (1903) synonymized aethra with Haemorrhagia diffinis diffinis f. aest. axillaris, a summer form of the snowberry clearwing.[4]
  • Barnes & McDunnough (1910) stated, in response to Rothschild & Jordan's synonymization of aethra with H. d. d. f. axillaris, "The race has not the slightest resemblance with axillaris."[8] Within eastern H. diffinis, they recognized Haemorrhagia diffinis aethra as the more northerly subspecies, occurring from Maine to northern Ontario, and H. diffinis diffinis to the south.

Relationship to H. diffinis

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Schmidt (2009) barcoded the DNA of H. diffinis specimens from eastern Ontario and found them to be made up of two sympatric groups with diverging genes for cytochrome c oxidase.[9][10] Schmidt (2018) examined other characteristics of the two groups and determined H. d. aethra to be a new species, H. aethra, while the nominate subspecies, H. d. diffinis, was synonymized with H. diffinis. Aside from their not being conspecific, mitochondrial DNA analysis also showed that H. aethra and H. diffinis are not sister taxa, with the former being most closely related to H. thetis, the Rocky Mountain clearwing.[10] The phenotypical similarity of H. aethra and H. diffinis can be attributed to convergent evolution through co-mimicry of the same bumblebee model.[10]

Distribution and habitat

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Hemaris aethra ranges from Maine to northern Ontario, with occasional records as far west as Saskatchewan.[11] It has a moderately broad range, estimated at 200,000-2,500,000 square km (80,000-1,000,000 square miles).[12] H. aethra's high degree of host specificity limits its geographic range to within that of its host plant, Diervilla lonicera. H. aethra is found in mesic, open deciduous forest, mostly in igneous bedrock plant communities, conditions that likely reflects the requirements of its host plant. In contrast, H. diffinis is found in more xeric, savannah-like habitats where Symphoricarpos (snowberry) is common.[13]

The separation distance for both unsuitable and suitable habitat is 1 kilometer.[12]

In addition to being sympatric with H. diffinis in eastern Ontario and possibly other areas,[10] its range overlaps with H. gracilis and H. thysbe.

Description

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The H. aethra larva has multiple color forms, the most common being green. It has bright red spiracles, a yellow prothoracic collar, and a caudal horn with a black apex fading to a pink-purple base; in contrast, diffinis larvae have black spiracles and the base of the caudal horn is bright yellow.[14]

Adults can be extremely difficult to tell apart from H. diffinis where they occur in sympatry, such as eastern Ontario. Generally, aethra adults are slightly larger and more robust, and the dorsal thorax is a richer orange-brown color contrasting strongly with olive-brown dorsolateral stripes. The head often has a greenish grey tinge. The reddish-brown apical spot forewings is generally larger and brighter red in aethra, taking up 50% or more of the R4-R5 cell, and the reddish-brown scaling on the hindwing anal margins is also more extensive than in diffinis, where it is usually limited to the inner margin.[14]

Ecology

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Like other Hemaris species, Hemaris aethra is a dayflying moth. It hovers at flowers to feed on their nectar, pollinating them in the process. Adults have been recorded nectaring on Vaccinium, Chicory, and Lonicera tatarica.[15]

The only known host plant for H. aethra larvae is the northern bush honeysuckle (Diervilla lonicera). Native Lonicera species may also be larval hosts like they are for H. diffinis, but Lonicera are typically much less common than Diervilla where H. aethra occurs.[16]

Threats and conservation

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Threats and potential conservation needs are unknown, as are long-term and short-term population trends. As of 2024, the species is not listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act or Canada's Species at Risk Act.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Graves prefaces the index by saying, "Many of the meanings are doubtful" (p. 377).

Citations

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  1. ^ a b c Strecker 1875, p. 107.
  2. ^ a b Maassen 1880, p. 69.
  3. ^ a b Smith 1900, p. 94.
  4. ^ a b Rothschild & Jordan 1903, p. 448.
  5. ^ Barnes & McDunnough 1910, p. 201.
  6. ^ Graves 1957, p. 378.
  7. ^ Kirby 1892, p. 626.
  8. ^ Barnes & McDunnough 1910, p. 201-2.
  9. ^ Schmidt 2009.
  10. ^ a b c d Schmidt 2018.
  11. ^ Schmidt 2018, p. 34.
  12. ^ a b Young 2019.
  13. ^ Schmdt 2018, pp. 34, 41.
  14. ^ a b Schmidt 2018, p. 37.
  15. ^ Schmidt 2018, p. 41.
  16. ^ Schmidt 2018, p. 40.

References

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  • Barnes, William; McDunnough, J. (1910). "List of Sphingidae of America North of Mexico". Psyche: A Journal of Entomology. 17 (5): 190–206. doi:10.1155/1910/54904. eISSN 1687-7438. ISSN 0033-2615.
  • Maassen, Peter (1880). "Bemerkungen zu der von A. G. Butler vorgenommenen Revision der Sphingiden" [Remarks on the revision of the sphingids undertaken by A. G. Butler] (PDF). Entomologische Zeitung Stettin (in German). 41: 49–72. BioStor 195518, BHL 8989423. Archived from the original on June 6, 2024. Retrieved July 14, 2024. p. 69: p. 634. Hemaris Aethra Strecker. Ich kann diesen Schmetterl. trotz der Lanze, die Freund Strecker für seine Artrechte bei mir eingelegt hat, nur für eine geringfügige Varietät von M. diffinis halten. [p. 634. Hemaris Aethra Strecker. I can only consider this butterfly to be a minor variety of M. diffinis, despite the lance that friend Strecker has taken with me for his species rights.]
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