Polyptychus guessfeldtii
This species is unlikely to be confused with any other sphingid. Varies greatly in size. Ground colour of wings and body dark purplish grey; dorsum of thorax dark brown-black, contrasting with pale grey of tegulae and abdomen upperside. Base of abdomen with three dark brown-black spots, arranged in a triangle with point directed posteriorly. Forewing upperside generally grey (fading to brown with age) with numerous irregular dark transverse and longitudinal lines; postmedial band dark brown, running obliquely from apex to a point on the inner margin at about two-thirds of the distance from base to tornus; area beyond this line olive-green (fading to yellow with age), with a second, more distal postmedial line that expands into a triangular patch on the inner margin and an incomplete submarginal line that runs from the apex about as far as M3. Hindwing upperside darker than in forewing, mostly uniform dark grey but outer margin olive green (fading to yellow with age). 57-65 mm. Female similar to male but larger and with more rounded wings.
Male genitalia: stridulatory curtain of abdominal tergite 8 comprising closely set, overlapping, truncate and apically fused scales arranged in a continuous ribbon around the lateral and dorsal edges of the segment; not interrupted dorsally as in many Polyptychus species and clearly visible in posterior view without dissection. Uncus with slightly bifurcate apex. Gnathos narrowed to a strongly sclerotized, downcurved hook. Valve large, with a large patch of minute stridulatory scales covering the greater part of the external surface. Harpe similar to those of the Polyptychus carteri group, comprising a dorsal, two-pronged, antler-like process covered in small, dense, basally directed brown hairs, below which is a ridge. Phallus with a long, sharply recurved, apical hook (as in many Polyptychus species).