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Home » Taxonomy » Sphingidae » Macroglossinae » Hemarini » Hemaris » Hemaris alaiana - (Rothschild & Jordan, 1903)
Taxonomy
Hemaris alaiana (Rothschild & Jordan, 1903)
Nomenclature
Species:
Hemaris alaiana (Rothschild & Jordan, 1903)
Usage:
valid
Reference:
Type data:
HOLOTYPE ♂ Alai Mts [NHMUK].
Taxonomic Notes:
Proposed as a subspecies of Haemorrhagia tityus. Synonymized with the nominotypical subspecies as a local form by Derzhavets, 1984, Ent. Obozr. 63: 613. Reinstated as a subspecies of Hemaris tityus by Bridges, 1993, Cat. Fam. Gen. Spec. Sphingidae of the World: VIII.9. Raised to species status by Danner, Eitschberger & Surholt, 1998, Herbipoliana 4 (1): 145. Resynonymized with Hemaris tityus by Kitching & Cadiou, 2000, Hawkmoths of the world: 47. Reinstated as a species by Eitschberger & Churkin, 2002, Neue. ent. Nachr. 23: 65.
Kitching & Cadiou (2000) (STI 18788) considered that the diagnostic features of Hemaris alaiana fell within the range of variation of Hemaris tityus and treated the former as a junior synonym of the latter. However, due to overlapping publication times, they were unfortunately unable to take account of the female genital morphology described by Eitschberger (1999) (STI 17712). These clearly show that Hemaris tityus and Hemaris alaiana are not synonymous; indeed, Hemaris alaiana would appear to be more closely related to Hemaris radians than to Hemaris tityus.
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Synonyms: 2