Sphingonaepiopsis Wallengren, 1858

Kitching, Ian J. & Zahiri, Reza, 2007, Taxonomic notes and new records of the genus Sphingonaepiopsis Wallengren, 1858 (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) in Iran, Zootaxa 1610, pp. 41-52 : 41

Sphingonaepiopsis Wallengren, 1858

Sphingonaepiopsis Wallengren, 1858 , Oefvers. K. VetenskAkad. Foerh. Stockh. 15: 138. Type species: Sphingonaepiopsis gracilipes Wallengren, 1858 , by original designation.

The genus Sphingonaepiopsis comprises some of the smallest of all hawkmoths, with wingspans of 25–35 mm. There are currently seven recognized species ( Kitching & Cadiou 2000), distributed throughout the Old World. S. gorgoniades and S. kuldjaensis (Graeser 1892) have Palaearctic distributions; the former has been recorded from SE Europe, east to the southern Urals, Afghanistan and NE Tajikistan (possibly reaching as far as Eastern Siberia, see below), and the latter is restricted to the mountains of Central Asia, from NE Afghanistan, through the Tian Shan, to eastern Kazakhstan and NW China. S. ansorgei Rothschild 1904 and S. nana are Afrotropical; the former is restricted to East Africa (from Kenya and Uganda to South Africa), and the latter occurs throughout sub-Saharan Africa, also in the Arabian Peninsula, and is here confirmed for the first time from Iran (see below). S. malgassica Clark 1929 and S. obscurus (Mabille 1880) are endemic to Madagascar, the former restricted to the south of the island, the latter found throughout ( Griveaud 1959). Finally, S. pumilio ( Boisduval [1875]) is SE Asian, occurring from NE India, through Burma and Thailand, to Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, with populations also in eastern and south-eastern China.