Basiothia medea ( Fabricius, 1781 )

Mbata, Keith J. & Prins, Jurate De, 2023, Annotated checklist of moths of Zambia (Insecta: Lepidoptera), Zootaxa 5354 (1), pp. 1-503 : 175-176

Basiothia medea ( Fabricius, 1781) * ( Fig. 28 )

COMMON NAME (S): Small Verdant Hawkmoth or Small Verdant Hawk. SYNONYM(S): Sphinx idrieus Drury, 1782 ; Sphinx minus Fabricius, 1787 ; Sphinx clio Fabricius, 1793 ; Chaerocampa transfigurata Wallengren, 1860 ; Chaerocamps idraeus Guenée, 1862, Basiothia nigrita Clark, 1920 .

IUCN STATUS: Not Evaluated (NE).

DISTRIBUTION: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cabo Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, GuineaBissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia , Nigeria, Republic of Congo,

Réunion, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Yemen, Zambia,

Zimbabwe.

LOCALITY IN ZAMBIA: University of Zambia in Lusaka ** and Riverside Motel ( RIMO)**, Kafue , both localities in Lusaka Province ; Serenje, in Central Province ; Solwezi, in Northwestern Province ; Chingola, Chililabombwe ,

Ndola, Kitwe and Mufulira , in Copperbelt Province.

LARVAL HOSTPLANT(S): Larval foodplants include: three Rubiaceae species ( Spermacoce sp. , Spermacoce natalensis Hochst. and Richardsonia sp. ) in South Africa ( Fawcett 1901; MacNulty 1970); two Rubiaceae species ( Pentas

sp. and Pentanisia sp. ) in Kenya ( MacNulty 1970) ; three Rubiaceae species ( Oldenlandia lancifolia

(Schumach.) DC., Spermacoce alata Aubl. , and S. ruelliae DC. ) and one Scrophulariaceae species

( Lindernia exilis Philcox ) in Côte d’Ivoire ( Vuattoux et al., 1989) and one Rubiaceae species ( Pentanisia schweinfurthii Hiern ) in an unnamed African country or countries ( Townsend 1936).

The African Moths (2019) web page lists the following plants as larval foodplants of the taxon without specifying in which of the countries listed above they are found: seven Rubiaceae species ( Diodia sp. , Spermacoce natalensis Hochst. , Richardia scabra L., Rhodopentas bussei (K.Krause) Kårehed & B.Bremer , Gallium sp. , Oldenlandia sp. and Pentanisia schweinfurthii Hiern. ), one Verbenaceae species ( Verbena sp. ) and one Convolvulaceae species ( Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam., the sweet potato).

SOURCES: African Moths 2019; De Prins & De Prins 2022; Fawcett, 1901; Hampson 1910c; MacNulty, 1970; Townsend 1936; Vuattoux et al. 1989.

Genus Cephonodes H̡bner, 1819

Figures

FIGURES 26–28. Adult moths. 26, Gonimbrasia belina (Westwood, 1894)—Anomalous Emperor or Mopane Worm. Kabwelume Falls area, Luapula Province, 28 September 2015; 26a, dorsal view; 26b, ditto, ventral view. 27, Heniocha dyops (Maassen, 1872)—Marbled Emperor, female (Saturniidae: Saturniinae), Riverside Motel (RIMO) in Kafue, 5 December 2010; 27a, dorsal view, 27b, ditto, ventral view. 28, Holocerina smilax smilax (Westwood, 1849)—Variable Prince (Saturniidae: Saturniinae), Riverside Motel (RIMO), Kafue, 10 April 2011; 28a, dorsal view; 28b, ditto, ventral view. Scale bar 2 cm. © Kind permission of the University of Zambia.