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The hawkmoth group Sphingonaepiopsis
Wallengren, 1858 is distributed with
seven species in the southern Palaearctic,
Oriental and Afrotropical regions (Pitta-
way 1993). Only one species, Sphingo-
naepiopsis gorgoniades (Hübner, [1819]),
occurs in Europe. It has a wide distribu-
tion ranging from South-Eastern Europe
across the southern Ukraine and Crimea,
southern Russia, the southern Urals, Ka-
zakhstan, the Caucasus, southern Turk-
menistan and Turkey to the Tian Shan
mountains and Afghanistan. It is also
recorded from Lebanon, Israel, Jordan,
Iraq and Iran (Pittaway 2005). It goes
further east across southern Siberia,
including the Altai and Amur region and
may also occur in Mongolia and northern
China (Pittaway 1993).
In fact, all described subspecies of S. gor-
goniades appear to be only environmen-
tally induced forms (Pittaway 2005). In
more humid areas individuals tend to be
larger, darker and more distinctly marked,
i. e. form chloroptera (regarded recently
as being synonymous with S. g. gorgoni-
ades; compare Kitching & Cadiou 2000
and Pittaway 2005), while in drier areas
populations tend to become smaller,
paler and less well marked, i. e. form S. g.
pfeifferi Zerny, 1933. The latter occurs
from southern Turkey and Lebanon east-
wards across northern Iraq, Iran to Af-
ghanistan. In Turkey, the range of S. g.
pfeifferi, formerly having the status of a
subspecies, is contiguous with that of
S. g. gorgoniades, yielding intermediate
forms (Pittaway 1993). The taxon pfeif-
feri was thus relegated from a subspecies
to an infrasubspecific form (Pittaway
2005). Therefore, at least all populations
in the West Palaearctic Region most like-
ly belong to the nominate form gorgoni-
ades (Hübner, [1819]).
The known distribution of S. gorgoniades
in South-Eastern Europe is extremely
patchy. Records exist from eastern Bul-
garia, Romania, Macedonia (Matka) and
Croatia (near Senj) (Mentzer 1974; Pit-
taway 1993, 2005; Zerny 1933). There
are old as well as recent unconfirmed
reports that this subspecies may occur
also in Hungary (Rougeot & Viette
1978); however, these may refer to the
Christian H. Schulze & Ludwig Weigert, First record of Sphingonaepiopsis gorgoniades
161
First record of Sphingonaepiopsis gorgoniades (Hübner, [1819])
from Peloponnesus, Greece (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae)
Christian H. Schulze & Ludwig Weigert
Abstract. A specimen of Sphingonaepi-
opsis gorgoniades (Hübner, [1819]) at-
tracted to light on 12.VI.1998 at Mount
Mavrovouna (Taigetos Mountains) at
an altitude of 550 m represents the
first record for Peloponnesus and
entire Southern Greece.
Zusammenfassung. Der Anflug eines
Falters von Sphingonaepiopsis gorgoni-
ades (Hübner, [1819]) ans Licht am
12.VI.1998 am Mount Mavrovouna
(Taygetos-Gebirge) in einer Höhe von
550 m stellt den ersten Nachweis die-
ser Schwärmerart für den Peloponnes
und gesamt Südgriechenland dar.
Key words. Sphingonaepiopsis gorgoniades, Sphingidae, Greece, Peloponnesus,
faunistics.
population in Croatia (Pittaway 2005).
More recently S. gorgoniades was record-
ed also in Central Greece (de Freina &
Piatkowski 1999).
During light trapping (mercury lamp) on
Peloponnesus between 6. and 15.VI.
1998 we recorded a single specimen of S.
gorgoniades (Fig. 1) in the southern part
of the peninsula (Fig. 2) on the 12.VI.
1998. The light trapping site was located
at the western slopes of Mount Mavro-
vouna (Taigetos Mountains) ca. four kilo-
meter ENE of Saidona at an altitude of
550 m. The habitat was a steep slope cov-
ered with scrubs. The collecting date cer-
tainly indicates a specimen belonging to
the first generation. Adults of the second
generation appear to occur not before
late July (e. g. de Freina & Witt 1987).
In total, only few specimens of S. gorgo-
niades have been recorded from Europe
(de Freina & Witt 1987). One reason
may be the pronounced crepuscular
behavior of this hawkmoth causing that
it just rarely becomes attracted by artifi-
cial light sources. The crepuscular behav-
ior was also confirmed by our observa-
tion. The single specimen recorded in
Southern Peloponnes was attracted to a
mercury lamp shortly after dusk at ca.
21:50 (total light trapping duration:
Fig. 1. Sphingonaepiopsis gorgoniades (Hübner, [1819]). Greece, Peloponnesus, Taigetos Mountains,
Mt. Mavrovouna, ca. 4km ENE Saidona, 550m, 12.VI.1998, leg. Weigert.
21:30–1:40). Also Beshkov (1990) col-
lected this hawkmoth at a mercury lamp
shortly after dusk. The larval hostplants
do not provide an potential reason for
the rarity and patchy distribution of S.
gorgoniades. The major hostplants seem
to be species the genus Galium (Rubia-
ceae), particularly G. verum (Danner et
al. 1998), a species with a wide distribu-
tion in the West Palaeartic region. Addi-
tionally, other Rubiaceae species are
used as hostplants although they are only
of minor importance according to Pitta-
way (2005).
Even by taking into account the difficul-
ties in recording S. gorgoniades, it seems
that its populations in South-Eastern
Europe are extremely small and highly
isolated. Because migratory behavior is
unknown in this hawkmoth species, the
specimen recorded in Southern Pelopon-
nesus most likely indicates another very
isolated autochthonous population in
South-Eastern Europe. The record from
Southern Peloponnesus is located ca.
180 km away from the nearest known
other site, Arahova (35 km W Livadia,
Parnassos; de Freina & Piatkowski
1999) in Central Greece (Fig. 2). It
would not be surprising if further popu-
lations of this hawkmoth will be re-
ported from additional locations on
Peloponnesus and mainland Greece in
the future. Also Pittaway (2005) men-
tioned that this species may occur in a
great many areas other than those indi-
cated.
References
Beshkov, S. V. 1990. Sphingonaepiopsis gorgoni-
ades (Hübner, [1819]) (Lepidoptera, Sphingi-
dae) – a new genus and a new species for the
Bulgarian fauna. Acta Zoologica Bulgarica 40:
75–77.
Danner, F., Eitschberger, U. & Surholt, B.
1998: Die Schwärmer der westlichen Palaeark-
tis. Bausteine zu einer Revision (Lepidoptera:
Sphingidae). Marktleuthen, Verlag U. Eitsch-
berger.
de Freina, J. J. & Witt, T.J. 1987. Die Bombyces
und Sphinges der Westpalaearktis (Insecta, Le-
pidoptera). Vol. 1. München. Edition Forschung
& Wissenschaft Verlags GmbH.
de Freina, J. J. & Piatkowski, H.-J. 1999. First
records and other interesting finds of Noctu-
oidea and Bombycoidea fauna of Greece and
observations on Sphingonaepiopsis gorgonia-
des pfeifferi (Zerny, 1933) comb. rev. (Insecta,
Lepidoptera). Atalanta 30: 259–272.
Mentzer, E. v. 1974. Sphingonaepiopsis pfeifferi
Zerny bona species und Sphingonaepiopsis pfeif-
feri ssp. nova chloroptera aus Jugoslawien
(Lep., Sphingidae). Acta Entomologica Jugo-
slavica 10: 147–153.
Pittaway, A. R. 1993. The Hawkmoths of the
Western Palaearctic. Martins. Harley Books.
Pittaway, A. R. 2005. Sphingidae of the Western
Palaearctic. http://tpittaway.tripod.com/sphinx/
list.htm.
Rougeot, P.-C. & Viette, P. 1978. Guide de Pa-
pillons nocturnes d’Europe et d’Afrique du Nord.
Héterocères (Partim). Paris, Delachaux &
Niestlé.
Zerny, H. 1933. Lepidopteren aus dem nördli-
chen Libanon. Deutsche Entomologische Zeit-
schrift Iris m: 60–109.
Dr. Christian H. Schulze
(corresponding author),
Department of Population Ecology,
Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna,
Althanstrasse 14, A-1090 Wien,
Email: christian.schulze@univie.ac.at
Ludwig Weigert, Gamelbertstr. 2,
D-94526 Metten
Entomologische Zeitschrift · Stuttgart · 116(4)2006
162
Fig. 2. Records of
Sphingonaepiopsis gorgo-
niades (Hübner, [1819])
from Greece. 1. Arahova,
Parnassos (de Freina &
Piatkowski 1999), 2. new
record from Mt.
Mavrovouna (Taigetos
Mountains), Southern
Peloponnesus.
