Nephele comma

Nephele comma
Nephele comma
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Sphingidae
Genus: Nephele
Species: N. comma
Binomial name
Nephele comma
Hopffer, 1857[1]
Synonyms
  • Nephele triangulifera Closs, 1914
  • Nephele charoba Kirby, 1877
  • Nephele charoba microstigma (Clark, 1927)
  • Nephele comma derasa Rothschild & Jordan, 1903

Nephele comma is a moth of the Sphingidae family. It is very common throughout the Ethiopian Region, including Madagascar.[2]

The length of the forewings is 32-39 mm and the wingspan is 76-86 mm. It is a very variable species. The body and forewings are dark olive green to reddish-brown and to light ochreous-brown. The dorsum of the abdomen is broadly of the same colour as the thorax. There are three large quadrate blackish lateral spots. The forewings have irregular dark transverse bands which are usually much better developed in the olive or ochreous specimens than in the reddish ones. The terminal area has a greyish tinge, usually in distinct contrast with the remainder of the wing and clearly defined proximally by a regular blackish submarginal line running from the apex to the tornus. In the typical form, the stigma is a prominent silvery white reversed comma with its curve towards the base of the wing and its extremities towards the termen. This stigma is even more dilated posteriorly and reduced anteriorly in form charoba and is reduced to a tiny dot or altogether absent in form derasa. The hindwings are various shades of olive, with a darker margin.

The larvae feed on the leaves of Carissa species.

References

  1. ^ "CATE Creating a Taxonomic eScience - Sphingidae". Cate-sphingidae.org. http://www.cate-sphingidae.org/taxonomy/Nephele/leighi.html. Retrieved 2011-10-25. 
  2. ^ "Revised Catalogue of the African Sphingidae (Lepidoptera) with Descriptions of the East African species". Biodiversitylibrary.org. http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/jeanhs/XXVI%20No.3%20(115)_1_1967_Carcasson.pdf. Retrieved 2011-10-25. 
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