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

Narrow-bordered bee hawk-moth
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Sphingidae
Genus: Hemaris
Species:
H. tityus
Binomial name
Hemaris tityus
(Linnaeus, 1758)[1]
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

Range

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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

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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

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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.

Pictures

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References

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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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