Nephele comma Hopffer, 1857

Mbata, Keith J. & Prins, Jurate De, 2023, Annotated checklist of moths of Zambia (Insecta: Lepidoptera), Zootaxa 5354 (1), pp. 1-503 : 182-183

Nephele comma Hopffer, 1857 *

COMMON NAME (S): Comma Nephele hawkmoth , Comma Nephele or Comma hawkmoth. SYNONYM(S): Nephele derasa Rothschild & Jordan, 1903 ; Nephele triangulifera Closs, 1914 . IUCN STATUS: Not Evaluated (NE). DISTRIBUTION: Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo,

Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mayotte,

Mayotte, Mozambique, Namibia , Nigeria, Republic of Congo, South Africa, Sudan, Togo, Tanzania, Uganda,

Zambia, Zimbabwe.

LOCALITY IN ZAMBIA: University of Zambia (Lusaka) ** and Kafue , in Lusaka Province ; Livingstone, Pemba, Choma and Monze ** in Southern Province ; Ndola, Mufulira, Kitwe, Chingola and Chililabombwe in Copperbelt Province; Two unnamed localities [Latitude, - 12.59102 S; Longitude, 30.25436 E & Latitude, - 12.56282 S; Longitude , 30.27907 E] in Central Province ; Solwezi and Mwinilunga, in Northwestern Province ; Sesheke, Mongu and Kalabo in Western Province .

LARVAL HOSTPLANT(S): Larval foodplants include: Two Apocynaceae species ( Diplorhynchus condylocarpon (M̧ll.Arg.) Pichon and Carissa sp. ) in South Africa ( MacNulty 1970); one Fabaceae species ( Anthonotha macrophylla P.Beauv. ) in Nigeria ( MacNulty 1970) and two Apocynaceae species ( Landolphia calabarica and L. owariensis P.Beauv. ) in Côte d’Ivoire ( Vuattoux et al. 1989). No larval foodplants have been reported for Zambia in the literature.

The African Moths (2019) webpage indicates that the following are larval foodplants of the taxon without specifying in which of the above countries in Africa , they are found; one Fabaceae species ( Anthobotha macrophylla P.Beauv ) and five Apocynaceae species ( Carissa macrocarpa (Eckl.) A.DC. , C. bispinosa (L.) Desf. ex Brenan, Diplorhynchus condylocarpon (M̧ll.Arg.) Pichon, Landolphia calabarica (Stapf) E.A.Bruce and L. owariensis P.Beauv. ).

SOURCES: African Moths 2019; De Prins & De Prins 2022; Hampson 1910c; MacNulty 1970; Scan-bugs Organization 2019a; Vuattoux et al. 1989.