Hippotion eson ( Cramer, 1779 )

Mbata, Keith J. & Prins, Jurate De, 2023, Annotated checklist of moths of Zambia (Insecta: Lepidoptera), Zootaxa 5354 (1), pp. 1-503 : 179-180

Hippotion eson ( Cramer, 1779) * ( Fig. 30 )

COMMON NAME(S): Common Striped Hawkmoth. SYNONYM(S): None. IUCN STATUS: Not Evaluated (NE). DISTRIBUTION: Algeria, Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi,

Mali, Mauritius, Mayotte, Namibia, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Réunion, Rwanda, Sao Tome & Principe, Saudi

Arabia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

LOCALITY IN ZAMBIA: Kafue, Chilanga and University of Zambia ( Lusaka) **, all three localities in Lusaka Province; Livingstone and Monze **, in Southern Province; Chililabombwe and Chingola, in Copperbelt Province; Mpika, in Muchinga

Province.

LARVAL HOSTPLANT(S): Host plants of the taxon include: two Convolvulaceae species ( Ipomoea pileata Roxb. and I. cairica (L.)

Sweet) and one Araceae species ( Anchomanes difformis (Blume) Engl. ) in Nigeria ( MacNulty 1970);

one Onagraceae species ( Fuchsia sp. ), two Vitaceae species ( Ampelopsis sp. and Vitis vinifera L. ), one

Rubiaceae species ( Richardia sp. ) and one Araceae species ( Zantedeschia aethiopica (L.) Spreng.) in

South Africa ( Pinhey 1960; van den Berg et al. 1975; Prinsloo & Uys 2015); one Rubiaceae species

( Spermacoce hepperiana Verdc. ), two Vitaceae species ( Cissus rubiginosa (Welw. ex Baker) Planch.

and Cyphostemma lageniflorum (Gilg & M.Brandt) Desc. ), one Dilleniaceae species ( Tetracera alnifolia

Willd.), one Onagraceae species ( Ludwigia affinis (DC.) H.Hara ) and one Dioscoreaceae species

( Dioscorea alata L.) in Côte d’Ivoire ( Vuattoux et al. 1989); one Dilleniaceae species ( Dillenia ferruginea

(Baill.) Gilg), one Araceae species ( Protarum sechellarum Engl. ), one Begoniaceae species ( Begonia seychellensis Hemsl. ) and one Balsaminaceae species ( Impatiens gordonii Horne ) in Seychelles ( Scott 1933; Floater 1993; Matyot 1996) and one Araceae species ( Amorphophallus sp. ) in Cameroon ( Schultze 1914).

The following are listed as foodplants of the larvae of the taxon by the African Moths (2019) webpage without specifying in which countries indicated above they occur: one Balsaminaceae species ( Impatiens balsamina L.), one Fabaceae species ( Vigna sp. ), six Araceae species ( Amorphophallus sp. , Anchomanes difformis (Blume) Engl. , Arum sp. , Caladium sp. , Colocasia sp. and Zantedeschia aethiopica (L.) Spreng.), four Vitaceaespecies ( Ampelopsis sp. , Cissus sp. , Parthenocissus quinquefolia ( L.) Planch. and Vitis vinifera L. ), one Nyctaginaceae species ( Bougainvillea sp. ), two Rubiaceae species ( Pentas sp. and Richardia sp. ), one Onagraceae species ( Fuchsia sp. ), two Convolvulaceae species ( Ipomoea cairica (L.) Sweet and Ipomoea pileata Roxb. ) and one Sapindaceae species ( Paullinia pinnata L.).

SOURCES: African Moths 2019; De Prins & De Prins 2022; Floater 1993; Hampson 1910c; MacNulty 1970; Matyot 1996; Pinhey

1960; Prinsloo & Uys 2015; Schultze 1914; Scott 1933; van den Berg et al. 1975; Vuattoux et al. 1989.

Figures

FIGURES 29–31. Adult moths. 29a, Usta terpsichore (Maassen, 1885)—Cavorting Emperor (Saturniidae: Saturniinae). Riverside Motel (RIMO), Kafue, 7 November 2010, dorsal view; 29b, ditto ventral view. 30a. Acherontia atropos (Linnaeus, 1758)—Death’s Head Hawkmoth (Sphingidae: Smerinthiinae) collected with a black light trap in Lusaka, 2 May, 2011, dorsal view; 30b, ditto, ventral view. 31, Agrius convolvuli (Linnaeus, 1758)—Convolvulus Hawk (Sphingidae: Sphinginae), 31a, live specimen 1, 24th November 2009; 31b, live specimen 2, same locality data. Scale bar 2 cm. © Kind permission of the University of Zambia.