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Home » Taxonomy » Sphingidae » Macroglossinae » Macroglossini » Macroglossina » Nephele » Nephele charoba - Kirby, 1877
Taxonomy
Nephele charoba Kirby, 1877
Nomenclature
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Subtribe: MacroglossinaGenus: Nephele
Species:
Nephele charoba Kirby, 1877
Usage:
valid
Type data:
Holotype Madagascar [NMID].
Taxonomic Notes:
Synonymized with Nephele comma as a form by Rothschild & Jordan, 1903, Novit. zool. 9 (suppl.): 556. Reinstated as a species by Clark, 1927, Proc. New Engl. zool. Club 9: 107. Resynonymized with Nephele comma by Carcasson, 1968, Jl E. Afr. nat. Hist. Soc. natn. Mus. 26 (3): 103. Treated as a subspecies of Nephele comma by Bridges, 1993, Cat. Fam. Gen. Spec. Sphingidae of the World: VIII.17. Resynonymized with Nephele comma by Kitching & Cadiou, 2000, Hawkmoths of the world: 60. Reinstated as a species by Kitching and Rougerie et al., 2018, Biodivers. Data J. 6: e22236.
Both Rothschild & Jordan (1903: 556) and Carcasson (1968: 103) considered Nephele charoba to be merely a form of the highly variable Nephele comma, in which the white, comma-shaped spot on the forewing, is thinner anteriorly and posteriorly rather more dilated distally. However, DNA barcode data suggests that Nephele charoba is a valid species. Samples of Nephele charoba are over 3% divergent from samples of Nephele comma from the African mainland (which show a maximum internal divergence of <0.5% across the whole mainland range of the species). Consequently, Nephele charoba is here considered to be a valid species.
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Synonyms: 1