Acherontia lachesis

Acherontia lachesis

Greater Death's Head Hawkmoth

Fabricius, 1798 Catalogue of Life

GBIF observations
2,947 GBIF
iNaturalist observations
3,179 iNaturalist
Taxonomic rank
Species
17 specimens
Description

Acherontia lachesis, the greater death's head hawkmoth or bee robber, is a large sphingid moth found in India, Sri Lanka and much of the East Asian region. It is one of the three species of death's-head hawkmoth genus, Acherontia. The species was first described by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1798. It is nocturnal and very fond of honey; they can mimic the scent of honey bees so that they can enter a hive unharmed to get honey. Their tongue, which is stout and very strong, enables them to pierce the wax cells and suck the honey out. This species occurs throughout almost the entire Oriental region, from India, Pakistan and Nepal to the Philippines, and from southern Japan and the southern Russian Far East to Indonesia, where it attacks colonies of several different honey bee species. It has recently become established on the Hawaiian Islands.

Source: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA

Status

COL status
accepted
Name status
acceptable
Nomenclatural code
zoological

Specimens in the collection

Legacy synonyms
acherontia lachesis
Non-butterfly
On
Hybrid

Larval host plants NHM HOSTS

+57 more recorded host plant(s)