The Sphingidae of Southeast-Asia    

(incl. New Guinea, Bismarck & Solomon Islands)                                 Back to start page,  species list           

by Jan Beck & Ian J. Kitching                                                                                                                    

Theretra insularis (Swinhoe, 1892)

Taxonomy

The following subspecies are currently recognized but are disregarded here (see Introduction):

T. i. insularis (Swinhoe, 1892); T. i. lenis Jordan, 1926; T. i. mollis Jordan, 1926; T. i. valens Jordan, 1926.

Distribution

T. insularis has been first recorded from Borneo in 1994 and has so far been found only in the northeast (Sabah). It is unclear if it is a recent immigrant from then Philippines and thus restricted to that part of Borneo, or if previous collectors in other parts of the island were not aware of its existence and misidentified it as T. rhesus. In quantitative sampling in Sabah we found insularis:rhesus at a rate of 1:88.