Greater Death's Head Hawkmoth
- GBIF observations
- 2,947 GBIF
- iNaturalist observations
- 3,179 iNaturalist
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
Larval host plants NHM HOSTS
+57 more recorded host plant(s)