Xylophanes mirabilis
Encyclopedia
Xylophanes mirabilis is a moth
Moth
A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...

 of the Sphingidae
Sphingidae
Sphingidae is a family of moths , commonly known as hawk moths, sphinx moths and hornworms, that includes about 1,200 species . It is best represented in the tropics but there are species in every region . They are moderate to large in size and are distinguished among moths for their rapid,...

 family. It is known from Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

.

The wingspan
Wingspan
The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...

 is about 95 mm. It cannot be confused with any other Xylophanes
Xylophanes
Xylophanes is a genus of moths in the Sphingidae family.-Species:*Xylophanes acrus - Rothschild & Jordan 1910*Xylophanes adalia - *Xylophanes aglaor - *Xylophanes alexandrei - Haxaire & Vaglia, 2009...


Species, although it is superficially similar in shape and pattern to Xylophanes ploetzi
Xylophanes ploetzi
Xylophanes ploetzi is a moth of the Sphingidae family. It is known from Surinam, French Guyana and Venezuela.It is similar to Xylophanes depuiseti and Xylophanes adalia. The abdomen has a thin median dorsal line. The underside of the body and wings is yellowish green. The lines of the forewing are...

. It is much larger and the ground colour is deep green (slightly fading to yellowish) with pale purple-grey irroration and a solid black discal spot. The pale median band is highlighted along the basal edge with small black spots on the veins.

The larvae probably feed on Rubiaceae
Rubiaceae
The Rubiaceae is a family of flowering plants, variously called the coffee family, madder family, or bedstraw family. The group contains many commonly known plants, including the economically important coffee , quinine , and gambier , and the horticulturally valuable madder , west indian jasmine ,...

 and Malvaceae
Malvaceae
Malvaceae, or the mallow family, is a family of flowering plants containing over 200 genera with close to 2,300 species. Judd & al. Well known members of this family include okra, jute and cacao...

species.
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