An annotated catalogue of the Paraguayan Sphingidae (Lepidoptera)

Abstract

Although the Sphingidae (hawkmoths) of Paraguay are moderately well-known, comprehensive publications on the fauna are few and far between, and there is no modern taxonomic and biogeographical overview of the available data against which future researchers could work. Here we compile existing published data and review important national collections to provide a preliminary understanding of the distributions of Sphingidae species in the country. The presence of 100 species is documented, with a further three species pending documentation, three species considered to be of potential occurrence and seven species considered to have been erroneously cited. A complete bibliography of Paraguayan Sphingidae is provided, as well as taxonomic discussion, and a first attempt is made to associate sphingid species’ distributions with the ecoregions present in the country. Four species are documented for Paraguay for the first time: Cocytius mephisto Haxaire & Vaglia, 2002, Manduca exiguus (Gehlen, 1942), Erinnyis impunctata Rothschild & Jordan, 1903 and Xylophanes marginalis Clark, 1917. Paraguayan specimens previously assigned to Xylophanes porcus (Hübner, [1823]) are re-assigned to the recently described species Xylophanes alineae Haxaire & C. Mielke, 2017 and Xylophanes soaresi Haxaire & C. Mielke, 2017. In addition, specimens of species previously named as Manduca sexta (Linnaeus, 1771) and Protambulyx eurycles (Herrich-Schäffer, [1854]) are referred to Manduca paphus (Cramer, 1779) and Protambulyx fasciatus (Gehlen, 1928) respectively. A provisional new taxonomic arrangement of the Paraguayan species of the genus Neogene Rothschild & Jordan, 1903 is also proposed in which Neogene pictus Clark, 1931 syn. nov. and Neogene intermedia Clark, 1935 syn. nov. are synonymized with Neogene reevei (Druce, 1882), and Neogene albescens Clark, 1929 syn. nov. is synonymized with Neogene steinbachi Clark, 1924.