Barbary Spurge Hawkmoth Caterpillar from Crete

bugman

October 24th, 2010 at 1:45 pm

Categories

Caterpillar
Location: Akrotiri, Crete, Greece
October 24, 2010 12:06 pm
I spotted this caterpiller on October 20th near Souda harbor on the Greek island of Crete. Can you help me identify?
Signature: Kritione

Barbary Spurge Hawkmoth Caterpillar

Dear Kritione,
We had to do a bit of creative information extrapolation in order to arrive at our assumption that this is a subspecies of the Barbary Spurge Hawkmoth, Hyles tithymali cretica. We were confident that we had the genus correct, so we did a websearch of possibilities from Crete and we found the Sphingidae of the Western Palaearctic page for Hyles tithymali cretica, but alas, there was no image of the caterpillar. We did find images of the caterpillar of another subspecies of the Barbary Spurge Hawkmoth, Hyles tithymali tithymali, a subspecies from the Canary Islands, also on the Sphingidae of the Western Palaearctic website, and they look like your individual. We learned on Wikipedia that: “It is thought that Hyles tithymali had a much larger range in Europe, but has been pushed further south after the cooling ca. 3600 years ago. Its place has been taken over by Hyles euphorbiae, which is more resistant to the cold. Because of this, many isolated populations exist today, many of which have developed to distinct subspecies.“ To further complicate matters, the caterpillar of the Leafy Spurge Hawkmoth, Hyles euphorbiae, which may be viewed on the Sphingidae of the Americas website, looks nearly identical. That Eurasian species has been introduced into North America to help control the spread of the invasive exotic plant, Leafy Spurge, and the Leafy Spurge Hawkmoth is now established in North America, but it prefers a cooler climate. The Leafy Spurge Hawkmoth, which is also pictured on the Sphingidae of the Western Palaearctic Website, has several subspecies as well.

Daniel,
Thank you for the speedy reply! I appreciate your assistance.
All the best,
Paul

add Barbary Spurge Hawkmoth Caterpillar from Crete

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Comments 2

Tony wrote:
Hi Paul,
Would like to use this photo on my web site – Sphingidae of the Western Palaearctic. Would this be possible? By the way, this taxon is now recognized as a distinct species in its own right. See details on the web site page under Hyles cretica.
Tony
Posted 05 Dec 2011 at 8:07 am ¶
bugman wrote:
Hi Tony,
Thanks for posting this comment here. What’s That Bug? reserves the right to publish photos and letters submitted to our site both online and in other What’s That Bug? authorized publications. We frequently use your website for identifications and we would be honored to grant you permission to use this image. We do not maintain contact information on submissions to our site, so we cannot contact Paul. Since you posted the request as a comment on this posting, should Paul not wish this photo to be published on your awesome site, he can contact you directly. Until that unlikely time, consider permission granted.
Daniel
Posted 05 Dec 2011 at 10:57 am ¶

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From Longwing Zebra Butterfly from Costa Rica | What's That Bug? on 24 Oct 2010 at 2:22 pm ¶
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