Theretra makhrovi sp. nov. from Flores Island, Indonesia (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae)

Abstract

Here, we describe Theretra makhrovi sp. nov., a new hawk moth species from Flores Island, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. This species is most similar to Theretra acuta Vaglia & Liyous, 2010 and T. rhesus (Boisduval, [1875]) but can be distinguished from these taxa by the lack of several marking features such as narrow yellow stripes on the tegula, a large, triangular black spot on the underside of the forewing, and a clear zigzag curved band on the underside of the hindwing. The new species has pink shading on the underside of both wings that is absent in the two other species. It also has narrower and longer wings and specific male genitalia structure compared with the two similar taxa.

A review of the Sphingidae (Lepidoptera) fauna of Zanzibar (Unguja) Island (Tanzania)

“…None of the Sphingidae species is endemic to Zanzibar, because this island was recently isolated from Africa in the latest Pleistocene (10-18 Ka) and is situated only 35-40 km off the eastern coastline of mainland (Clarke & Burgess 2000;Rowson et al 2010). In contrast, the hawk moth faunas of older oceanic archipelagoes such as the Inner Seychelles, Comoros, and Lesser Sundas contain a large proportion of endemic taxa (Turlin 1996;Rougerie et al 2014;Lawrence 2015;Spitsyn & Bolotov 2020;Bolotov et al 2021).…”