Deilephila elpenor

• Overview
• Interesting Facts
• Common Names
• Description
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Overview

Interesting Facts

Common Names

Click on the language to view common names.

Description

Family Sphingidae

'The Sphingidae belong to the Superfamily Sphingoidea. Members of this family are commonly called "hummingbird," "sphinx," or "hawk" moths, and some can be mistaken for hummingbirds. Most are medium to large moths, with heavy bodies; wingspread reaches 5 inches or more in some species. The Sphingidae are strong and fast fliers, with a rapid wingbeat. Most species in the group are active at dusk, and most feed much like hummingbirds, hovering in front of a flower and sipping nectar through the extended proboscis. The proboscis rolls up when not in use. Some species lack scales on large portions of their wings , resulting in transparent or clear wings. In most species, the larval stage is called a "hornworm" because the caterpillar''s posterior end has a harmless hook or hornlike appendage protruding upward. Unfortunately, the caterpillar of some species can be very destructive to agricultural crops and ornamental plantings .

'[1]

Habitat

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 2,500 meters (0 to 8,202 feet).[2]

Taxonomy

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Similar Species

Members of the genus Deilephila

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 3 species and subspecies in this genus:

D. elpenor (Elephant Hawk-Moth) · D. elpenor elpenor (Elephant Hawk-Moth) · D. porcellus (Small Elephant Hawk-Moth)

More Info

• Search for Pictures: images.google.com
• Search for Scholarly Articles: Google Scholar
• Search using Scientific Name and Vernacular Names: All the Web | AltaVista Canada | AltaVista | Excite | Google | HotBot | Lycos
• Search using Specialized Databases: GenBank | Medline | Scirus | CISTI/CAL | Agricola Periodicals | Agricola Books

Further Reading

• A handbook of British Lepidoptera, by Edward Meyrick. London, Macmillan, 1895. url p. 295.
• A new British flora: British wild flowers in their natural haunts / described by A. R. Horwood; with sixty-four plates in colour representing 350 different plants, from drawings by J. N. Fitch and many illustrations from photographs. London: Gresham, 1919. url p. 63.
• Anales de la Sociedad Española de Historia Natural. Madrid: La Sociedad, url p. 119.
• British journal of entomology and natural history. [London]: British Entomological and Natural History Society, 1988- url p. 103, p. 14, p. 176, p. 184, p. 3, p. 4, p. 45, p. 71, p. 73.
• Bulletin of miscellaneous information /Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 1907 London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1900-1941. url p. 159.
• Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History). London: BM(NH) url p. 21, p. 6.
• Catalogue of scientific papers (1800-1900) Comp. by the Royal society of London. Cambridge, C. J. Clay and sons, 1867-1902; url p. 780.
• Catalogue of scientific papers, 1800-1900. Compiled by the Royal Society of London. London, C.J. Clay and Sons, 1867-1902 [etc.] Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1914-25. url p. 780.
• Colour in nature; a study in biology, London, J. Murray, 1898. url .
• Experiment station record. Washington: G.P.O., 1889-1946. url p. 250, p. 949.
• Fauna, flora & geology of the Clyde area, ed. by G.F. Scott Elliot, Malcolm Laurie and J. Barclay Murdoch. Glasgow, Pub. by the local committee for the meeting of the British Association, 1901. url p. 239.
• Handbook of flower pollination based upon Hermann Müller's work 'The fertilisation of flowers by insects'; tr. by J.R. Ainsworth Davis. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1906. url , p. 283, p. 450, p. 532, p. 84.
• Handbook of flower pollination: based upon Hermann Mu?ller's work 'The fertilisation of flowers by insects' / Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906-09. url , , , , .
• History of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, instituted September 22, 1831 [Vol. 1 of proceedings, corr. and reprinted] Alnwick, H.H. Blair, 1885. url p. 160.
• Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences. Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1866- url p. 54.
• Molecular & general genetics: MGG. Berlin; Springer-Verlag, 1908-2001 url p. 100.
• Natural science: a monthly review of scientific progress. London [etc.]: Macmillan and Company [etc.], [1892-1899] url p. 175.
• On British wild flowers considered in relation to insects / by Lord Avebury. London: Macmillan, 1909. url p. 116.
• Proceedings and transactions of the British Entomological and Natural History Society. London, British Entomological and Natural History Society. url , p. 119, p. 124, p. 125, p. 127, p. 129, p. 19, p. 3, p. 32, p. 45, p. 50, p. 56, p. 59, p. 60, p. 71, p. 98.
• Science progress. London: Scientific Press, [1894-1898] url p. 186.
• The Annals and magazine of natural history; zoology, botany, and geology being a continuation of the Annals combined with Loudon and Charlesworth's Magazine of Natural History. London, Taylor and Francis, Ltd. url p. 345.
• The Biological bulletin. Woods Hole, Mass.: Marine Biological Laboratory, url p. 315.
• The Entomologist's monthly magazine. Oxford [etc.]Entomologist's Monthly Magazine Ltd. [etc.] url p. 270, p. 70.
• The Entomologist's record and journal of variation. s.l., s.n. url , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , p. 101, p. 102, p. 102, p. 102, p. 107, p. 11, p. 110, p. 113, p. 113, p. 117, p. 118, p. 12, p. 123, p. 124, p. 125, p. 13, p. 133, p. 14, p. 140, p. 144, p. 145, p. 15, p. 15, p. 157, p. 16, p. 166, p. 167, p. 17, p. 171, p. 174, p. 179, p. 18, p. 182, p. 183, p. 184, p. 188, p. 189, p. 190, p. 192, p. 192, p. 195, p. 196, p. 197, p. 20, p. 20, p. 215, p. 216, p. 217, p. 219, p. 22, p. 223, p. 224, p. 227, p. 237, p. 238, p. 24, p. 241, p. 242, p. 245, p. 249, p. 255, p. 256, p. 257, p. 259, p. 26, p. 26, p. 260, p. 262, p. 265, p. 266, p. 27, p. 275, p. 277, p. 284, p. 29, p. 290, p. 295, p. 301, p. 312, p. 316, p. 331, p. 339, p. 34, p. 34, p. 346, p. 350, p. 361, p. 37, p. 38, p. 41, p. 43, p. 43, p. 43, p. 44, p. 55, p. 59, p. 63, p. 63, p. 65, p. 67, p. 69, p. 72, p. 77, p. 8, p. 9, p. 9, p. 93, p. 95, p. 95.
• The Entomologist. London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co., [1877- url p. 159, p. 240.
• The Review of applied entomology. Farnham Royal, Eng., etc.: Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux, etc. url p. 610, p. 647, p. 805.
• The Victoria history of the County of Hertford / edited by William Page. London: Published for the University of London, Institute of Historical Research by Dawsons of Pall Mall, [1971] url .
• The Victoria history of the county of Cornwall. Edited by William Page. [LondonConstable]1906 url .
• The comparative physiology of respiratory mechanisms. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania press[1959, c1941] url p. 129.
• The cyclopaedia of anatomy and physiology. Ed. by Robert B. Todd. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1835-59. url p. 861, p. 867.
• The cyclopædia of anatomy and physiology. Ed. by Robert B. Todd. .. London, Sherwood, Gilbert, and Piper, 1836-59. url p. 861.
• The evolution theory, London, E. Arnold, 1904. url .
• The fertilisation of flowers. Translated and edited by D'Arcy W. Thompson, with a preface by Charles Darwin. LondonMacmillan1883 url p. 294.
• Transactions of the Kentucky Academy of Science. [Lexington, Ky.]Kentucky Academy of Science, 1923-1997. url p. 31.
• Transactions of the Zoological Society of London. [London]: Published for the Zoological Society of London by Academic Press url p. 554, p. 554.

Notes

Contributors

• Bisby, F.A., Y.R. Roskov, M.A. Ruggiero, T.M. Orrell, L.E. Paglinawan, P.W. Brewer, N. Bailly, J. van Hertum, eds (2007). Species 2000 and ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2007 Annual Checklist. Species 2000: Reading, U.K.
• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 17, 2012.
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Accessed February 28, 2008. http://www.gbif.org Mediated distribution data from 9 providers.
• LepIndex: The Global Lepidoptera Names Index. Release date: June 15, 2005
• Ruggiero M., Gordon D., Bailly N., Kirk P., Nicolson D. (2011). The Catalogue of Life Taxonomic Classification, Edition 2, Part A. In: Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2011 Annual Checklist (Bisby F.A., Roskov Y.R., Orrell T.M., Nicolson D., Paglinawan L.E., Bailly N., Kirk P.M., Bourgoin T., Baillargeon G., Ouvrard D., eds). DVD; Species 2000: Reading, UK.

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal February 28, 2008:

• Biologiezentrum der Oberoesterreichischen Landesmuseen: Biologiezentrum Linz
• Finnish Museum of Natural History: Hatikka Observation Data Gateway
• GBIF-Sweden: Bugs (GBIF-SE:Artdatabanken)
• GBIF-Sweden: Lepidoptera (Observations)
• GBIF-Sweden: Lepidoptera (Specimens NRM)
• inatura - Erlebnis Naturschau Dornbirn
• Jyväskylä University Museum - The Section of Natural Sciences: Invertebrate collection of Jyvaskyla University Museum
• Natural History Museum, University of Oslo: Norwegian Lepidoptera collection, Oslo
• SysTax
• SysTax: Lobbecke Museum Dusseldorf
• UK National Biodiversity Network: Dorset Environmental Records Centre - Dorset Hawkmoths - NBN South West Pilot Project Case Studies
• UK National Biodiversity Network: Environment and Heritage Service - EHS Species Datasets
• UK National Biodiversity Network: Highland Biological Recording Group - HBRG Lepidoptera dataset
• UK National Biodiversity Network: Joint Nature Conservation Committee - Scarce Macro Moth Review Data (historical)
• UK National Biodiversity Network: Lothian Wildlife Information Centre - Lothian Wildlife Information Centre Secret Garden Survey
• UK National Biodiversity Network: Natural England - Invertebrate Site Register - England.
• University of Helsinki, Department of Applied Biology: European Moth Nights
• University of Helsinki, Department of Applied Biology: Lepidoptera collection of Hannu Saarenmaa
• University of Helsinki, Department of Applied Biology: Lepidopterological Society of Finland

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 2964680
• Catalogue of Life Accepted Name Code: Lep-56176.0
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 1892254
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 638571

Footnotes

1. http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/taxonomy?f=30&sci=Sphingidae&com=Sphinx Moths, Hawkmoths [back]
2. Mean = 266.460 meters (874.213 feet), Standard Deviation = 295.720 based on 3,184 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.