Macroglossum queenslandi Clark 1927
 MACROGLOSSINAE,   SPHINGIDAE,   BOMBYCOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans,
( donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley


related species: Macroglossum heliophila
(Picture: courtesy of A.R. Pittaway & I.J. Kitching,
The Natural History Museum, London)

The early instars of this caterpillar are green, with a forward-curving black tail horn. Later instars become speckled with yellow dots. The final instar can be green or brown, with variable markings. Related species have been found feeding on plants from the family RUBIACEAE, including :

  • Dalzell's Psychotia ( Psychotria dalzellii ), and
  • Red Psychotria ( Psychotria rubra ).

    The adult moth is brown with a pale band across each forewing, and broad yellow band across each hindwing.


    drawing by Charles Swinhoe, of related species Macroglossa kanita    ,
    Catalogue of eastern and Australian Lepidoptera Heterocera in the collection of the Oxford University Museum,
    Sphinges and Bombyces, Part 1 (1892), Plate I, fig. 2,
    image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

    The related species Macroglossa kanita and Macroglossum heliophila have been found across south-east Asia, including

  • Hong Kong,
  • India,
  • Taiwan,

    Australian specimens of these Asian species were initially thought to be a subspecies queenslandi Clark, 1927, but have since been found to be a distinct species:

  • Queensland.

    Further reading :

    Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Dechauffour de Boisduval,
    Macroglossa, Macroglossides,
    Histoire naturelle des insectes,
    Volume 1 (1874), pp. 354-355.

    Benjamin Preston Clark,
    Twenty-five new Sphingidae, Proceedings of the New England Zoological Club,
    Boston, Volume 8 (1922), pp. 14-15.

    Charles Swinhoe,
    Sphinges and Bombyces,
    Catalogue of eastern and Australian Lepidoptera Heterocera in the collection of the Oxford University Museum,
    Clarendon Press, Part 1 (1892), p. 5, No. 17, and also Plate 1, fig. 2.

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    (updated 10 December 2005, 17 September 2025)