1. Live pictures

1.1. Imago

2. Diagnosis

2.1. Original description

1-2: Cramer ([1780]: 164, pl. CCLXXXV fig. A) [from copyright-free scans at www.biodiversitylibrary.org]

3. Further information

3.1. Other combinations

• Sphinx menephron Cramer & Stoll, [1780] [original combination]

3.2. Taxonomy and Faunistics

Locus typicus referred to original description: Isle d'Amboine [Amboina, Indonesian Molucca Island].

According to [Global Biodiversity Information Facility] this species is present in Australia, Guam, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Chinese Taipei, India, China, New Caledonia, USA, Viet Nam, Malaysia, Philippines, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste, Singapore and Vanuatu.

The P. menephron complex was repeatedly split up and thrown together, then split up even more and thrown back together in parts. According to [tpittaway.tripod.com] most of the occurences in East Asia belong to P. discistriga. Locus typicus is Silhet [Sylhet] in Bangladesh. Distribution: "Northern India (Subhasish Arandhara, 2016; Jatishwor Irungbam & Fric, 2021; Sondhi, Karmakar, Sondhi & Kunte, 2021), Nepal, Bhutan (Irungbam & Irungbam, 2019 ), Myanmar/ Burma, Great Nicobar Island (Singh, Ahmad & Chandra, 2021), central and southern China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines."

In addition, those authors only accept Psilogramma increta (Walker, [1865]) (widespread, but not in Australia), Psilogramma jordana Bethune-Baker, 1905 as endemic for East Asia Fiji Islands and Psilogramma wannanensis Meng, 1990 endemic to "China: Beijing (Sanbao); Anhui (Xuancheng area)". P. menephron s.str. with type location on the Indonesian Moluccan island of Ambon is not further discussed (outside the range of this site); so it remains unclear how widespread that taxon actually is. It cannot be widespread, because the east of Papua New Guinea and Australia are settled by P. casuarinae. P. menephron s.str. seems to be endemic to Ambon (Amboine) and maybe a few other isles around.

Important: [tpittaway.tripod.com] declare: "The introduced population on Hawaii has now been confirmed as being Psilogramma increta, not P. menephron."

(Author: Erwin Rennwald)

3.3. Literature

• Original description: Cramer, P. (“1782”) [1779-1780]: De uitlandsche kapellen voorkomende in de drie waereld-deelen Asia, Africa en America 3: 1-176, pl. CICIII-CCLXXXVIII. Amsteldam (S. J. Baalde), Utrecht (Barthelemy Wild).

3.4. Informations from other websites (external links)

• [BOLD: P. menephron agg.]
• [Global Biodiversity Information Facility: P. menephron agg.]