The Sphingidae of Southeast-Asia
(incl. New Guinea, Bismarck & Solomon Islands) Version 1.6 Back to start page
by Jan Beck & Ian J. Kitching
What's new in this version?
Version 1.6
(online from December 2015): The last seven years have seen a massive expansion of our project. We have gathered more data, there have been advances in taxonomic understanding that have led to changed assessments of species delineations and nomenclature, and we have produced fine-grained range estimates for all non-American sphingids (based on species distribution modelling).
We decided to present this information on other websites, and keep "The Sphingidae of Southeast-Asia" as an archive of our earlier activities only. As a consequence, we have removed all sites with outdated information on species ranges and checklists. However, you can still access these data (for reference or offline use) through Downloads.
For more up-to-date taxonomic information of all Sphingidae (including pictures), please go to the Sphingidae Taxonomic Inventory.
Detailed estimates of geographic ranges for all non-American sphingids (2015-assessment) can be accessed through Map of Life (see here for an example; note that presence records from GBIF are shown in Map of Life, but these have not been vetted by us).
Version 1.5
(online since February 2008): We received several thousands
of new records, which lead to small or larger changes in range estimates in 85
species (mostly in China and Indonesia). As a consequence, many island
checklists had to be updated, in particular that of
Sulawesi and of several of the Lesser
Sundas (such as Flores and
Timor). Several species
were newly included, either because
they were newly described, or because they are only recently found in the
Southeast-Asian region:
A. pseudonaga,
A. tenggarensis,
A. kai,
C. mirabilis,
C. scotti and
C. jakli.
Some island names around Papua-New Guinea
were corrected (wrong spellings or old-fashioned names;
thanks to John Tennent!).
Some new links of interest were included, some
non-functional ones were deleted. You have notived that we changed the design of
the start page, featuring a different picture each time you visit.
Version 1.4
(online since May 2007):
The site was moved to a server at Basel University
(reflecting J.B.'s new affiliation; new URL:
http://www.sphin-sea.unibas.ch). An
automatic forwarding link was set at the old URL. Contact information and our
publication list were updated.
New records from
China, Vanuatu and the Andaman islands became available, and we became aware of
more Australian data (CISRO).
Changes in range estimates resulted in
T. oldenlandiae,
T. silhetensis and
T. suffusa (newly recorded from
the Andamans), as well as
A. sericeipennis,
C. minor (China) and
A. wildei, ,
H. rosetta,
M. nubilum,
M. tenebrosa.
N. hespera
T. radiosa,
T. tryoni and
T. turneri (Australia).
Following new
taxonomic developments,
all species previousely listed under the generic name
Lepchina are now considered Dahira [technical
note: this change has not yet been implemented in
download data; furthermore, file names of webpage, picture of range maps
still carry the acronym "Lep_", which will be replaced by "Dah_" in version
1.5].
A number of new species have been
described from the region (Rhodoprasina mateji Brechlin & Melichar, 2006;
Ambulyx interplacida Brechlin, 2006; Ambulyx
adhemariusa
Eitschberger, Bergmann & Hauenstein, 2006; Angonyx krishna Eitschberger &
Haxaire, 2006), data for which will be presented in the next update of the site.
Version 1.3
(online since September 2006): A link
to the page for
A. bismarcki was
repaired. A new species, Acosmeryx
beatae, was described from Sulawesi (splitting A. socrates sensu
lato in a Philippine and a Sulawesi species).
Over 2000 new records became available to
us (many from Japan's Ryukyu islands, the Solomon Islands and Hong Kong), most of which 'fill' existing range estimates.
Important changes in range estimates had to be made in
C. poecilus,
C. porphyria,
G. preechari,
L. yunnanfuana,
M. saishiuana (China),
M. obliqua (Solomon
Islands) and A. canescens
(Sulawesi).
Small changes in ranges resulted in
H. celerio (central Africa),
A. bakeri (Jolo archipelago),
A. schauffelbergeri,
A. panopus,
A. elwesi,
C. juniona,
D. hypothous,
H. brennus,
I. ihlei,
M. faro,
M. insipida,
M. vicinum,
M. cristata,
P. menephron,
T. latreillii,
T. nessus and
T. silhetensis.
Changes in (recorded or expected) island checklists resulted for
Jolo,
Tawitawi, Sulwesi and all major
Solomon Islands. For a number of species we are now able to present images of
higher quality than in previous versions.
An offline-version and other features
can now be downloaded.
Our
list of publications from this project has
substantially increased. Please note that
our analyses are based on data as presented in Version 1.1. See
Downloads if you require range maps (in JPEG
format) from this version. Color version of recently published maps of species
richness are available in Patterns of diversity
and distributions (Fig. 1 and links).
Version 1.2 (online since
February
2006) includes some records that only
recently became available to us (mostly from Africa and the
Middle East, but also from China, Japan, Burma and the Malesian region). While most of these records only 'filled' previous range
estimates, they lead to (often small) expansions of our estimates in
A. styx,
A. convolvuli,
A. panopus,
C. hylas,
C. bilineata,
D. rubiginosa,
D. nerii,
H. celerio,
H. rafflesii,
H. rosetta,
H. livornica,
M. neotroglodytus,
M. vacillans,
R. schnitzleri,
R. winbrechlini,
S. tagalica,
T. alecto,
T. indistincta and
T.
japonica.
Some new "good" species
were described from eastern Indonesia and Papua New Guinea (A.
rudloffi, M. paukstadtorum,
T. babarensis), whereas the
description of some others is still pending.
Changes in island
checklists resulted for Bali,
Borneo,
Lombok, Mentawi,
New Britain,
New Ireland,
Nias,
Peninsular Malaysia and the Tanimbar
islands.
Furthermore, we are now able to present pictures for
Gnathothlibus vanuatuensis
and Theretra sugii.
Regrettably, we found errors in the previous (recorded) island checklists for
Luzon and
Seram, which have been corrected.
Version 1.1 (online since
April,
2005) includes
some records that
only recently became available to us (mostly from Hainan, New Guinea and the
Solomon Islands). While most of these records only 'filled'
previous range estimates, they lead to expansions of our estimates in
A. convolvuli,
A. harterti,
A. andangi,
A. liturata,
A. sericeipennis,
C. lineosa,
C. titan,
D. dohertyi,
D. elpenor,
H. rosetta,
M. divergens,
M. cadioui,
P. sulawesica,
R. albomarginatus,
T. insularis and
T. suffusa.
This caused changes in the island
checklists for Peninsular Malaysia,
Timor and most of the Solomon Islands.
An error in the picture
display of Eupanacra poulardi/harmani/greetae was corrected.
Version 1.0 (online since
January 2005) acknowledged for new
(2004) taxonomic work and distribution records in the region. Important changes
are:
M. cadioui
was newly described
from Sulawesi
R. corrigenda: Northern
records refer to R. viksinjaevi Brechlin
P. floresica:
The picture was deleted as it appeared unsure to what species it actually
referred
New distribution records were included among various Clanis
species
C. hylas: Some
records were considered erroneous
Furthermore, we worked on technical
improvements to make the site more accessible to users with a slow internet
connection.
Version 0.99 was the first
published edition of The Sphingidae of Southeast-Asia. It contained the
taxonomy, records and range maps as they are used in JB's PhD thesis on The
Macroecology of Southeast-Asian hawkmoths.
Apart from these changes in content, we fixed broken links and removed reference to websites that no longer exist.