Type species: Sphinx pinastri Linnaeus, 1758, by subsequent designation by Grote, 1873, Bull. Buffalo Soc. nat. Sci. 1: 27.
Taxonomic Notes:
Early phylogenetic analyses suggested Hyloicus was internal to Sphinx and so it continued to be treated here as a synonym, despite the various differences in morphology and biology. However, the other conifer-feeding Sphinx sensu lato were missing at that point. More recently, a preliminary UCE phylogeny (11.iii.2020) places Hyloicus (albeit only pinastri and the very close maurorum) as sister to Lapara in a conifer-feeding clade that also includes Thamnoecha and Isoparce. This clade is then sister to a monophyletic Sphinx s.s. (n = 4). All of these are then sister to a monophyletic Lintneria. A similar pattern is shown by preliminary AHE analyses. Thus, given that no-one would accept sinking Lapara and Isoparce into Sphinx, in order to avoid paraphyly of that genus, Hyloicus has to be treated as a valid genus.
Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical):
Ed Baker,
Katherine Bouton
Alice Heaton
Dimitris Koureas,
Laurence Livermore,
Dave Roberts,
Simon Rycroft,
Ben Scott,
Vince Smith
