Manduca petuniae (Boisduval, 1875)

Synonymized with Sphinx cestri [sic] by Burmeister, 1878, Descr. physique République Argentine 5 (Lépid.) (1): 321, then with Phlegethontius diffissa by Kirby, 1892, Synonymic Cat. Lepid. Heterocera 1: 689. Reinstated as a species by Rothschild & Jordan, 1903, Novit. zool. 9 (suppl.): 75, who incorrectly treated petuniae as the valid name for this species. This error was corrected by Rothschild, 1919, Novit. Zool. 26: 196. Reinstated as a species by Aguado et al., 2022, Lepidoptera Argentina 15: 46. Aguado et al. (2021) (STI 22768) justified their reinstatment of Manduca petuniae to species status as follows: “Manduca petuniae was originally described as a subspecies of Manduca diffissa, and is still formally considered as such. However, its status was recently questioned, suggested by DNA results that seem to indicate that it was a different species, restricted to the NEA [northeast Argentina], Paraguay and southern Brazil. We consider this to be a plausible possibility, and for that reason, we tentatively chose to mention it separately from M. diffissa.” However, they gave no indication of who had “recently questioned its status” nor did they provide the supporting DNA results. Indeed, the revised and annotated checklist of Brazilian Sphingidae published by Haxaire & Mielke (2020) (STI 22136) only a year before had considered that all three subspecies in Brazil “show a wide range of variation, so that, in some cases, the intrasubspecific variation overlaps the actual subspecies classification” and this led them to believe that “they are more ecological forms than a real subspecies [sic]”, so that while a revision is not available, these subspecies are accepted”. That said, DNA barcoding does suggest that Manduca petuniae is distinct from other populations of Manduca diffissa. The few samples available form a compact cluster and BIN (ACE3083), which is 1.44% distant from its nearest neighbour within the remaining samples of the Manduca diffissa group. On this basis, the species status of Manduca petuniae is provisionally accepted here, pending a full revision of the Manduca diffissa group.