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.