Hemeroplanes longistriga
Updated as per personal communication with Larry Valentine (Itanhandu, Minas Gerais, Brazil, December 15, 2009); December 2009
Updated as per CATE Sphingidae (Brazil, Argentina); May 14, 2011

Hemeroplanes longistriga
heh-mer-oh-PLAY-neesmm long-ih-STRIG-uh
(Rothschild & Jordan, 1903) Leucorhampha

Hemeroplanes longistriga, Itanhandu, Minas Gerais, Brazil,
December 15, 2009, courtesy of Larry Valentine.

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TAXONOMY:

Family: Sphingidae Latreille, 1802
Subfamily: Macroglossinae Harris, 1839
Tribe: Dilophonotini Burmeister, 1878
Genus: Hemeroplanes Hubner, [1819]...........
Species: longistriga Rothschild & Jordan, 1903

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DISTRIBUTION:

Hemeroplanes longistriga (wingspan: mm) flies in
Brazil (specimen type locality), Minas Gerais (LV);
Argentina: Iguazu; and
Ecuador. There are possibly populations in other countries as well, but the Ecuador report may be in error.

Hemeroplanes longistriga, Itanhandu, Minas Gerais, Brazil,
December 15, 2009, courtesy of Larry Valentine.

I believe the genus name comes from the Greek "Hemero" = everyday life and "planes" = rhealm.

"Stryga" is derived from a Greek word meaning 'bird of the night' or 'vampire'. It (more likely) could also be from the Latin, meaning streak or stripe. "Longi" means long.

Of the four Hemeroplanes species, H. diffusa is the only one that does not have the silver streak basally forked; Hemeroplanes longistriga is the only one with elongated extensions of the silver streak; Hemeroplanes ornatus has upper yellow abodminal bands that are retricted and do not cross the entire abdomen, while those same upper yellow bands extend dorsally across entire segments in triptolemus. Longistriga is without the bands.

FLIGHT TIMES:

There are probably at least two generations annually with peak flights in January-February and again in June-July. Larry Valentine confirms a December flight in Minas Gerais, Brazil.

ECLOSION:

SCENTING AND MATING:

Females call in the males with a pheromone released from a gland at the tip of the abdomen.

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