Convolvulus Hawkmoth (Agrius convolvuli) lives in warm temperate regions across Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
Fascinating facts about the Convolvulus Hawkmoth
- When the sun slips below the horizon, this moth hovers like a hummingbird over garden flowers, drawn to the dim light of twilight. Its favourite time is around sunset and during the twilight, when it is seen in gardens hovering over the flowers. Because it is so attracted to artificial glow, it often meets a fatal end on busy highways.
- The adult's feeding tube outstretches its own body, a proboscis longer than the moth itself, allowing it to sip nectar from deep, trumpet-shaped blooms such as Nicotiana sylvestris, Petunioideae, and Liliaceae. The adult feeds on the wing and has a very long proboscis (longer than its body) that enables it to feed on long trumpet-like flowers such as Nicotiana sylvestris, Petunioideae, and Liliaceae.
- In New Zealand the moth is known as the kumara moth because its larvae can turn sweet-potato crops into a pest, feeding on the leaves of cultivated Ipomoea batatas. It can be a pest of cultivated Ipomoea batatas (sweet potato or kūmara) in New Zealand and the Pacific.
- Caterpillars of the convolvulus hawk-moth appearing in brown, bright green or even black. The caterpillars can be in a number of different colours. As well as brown (pictured below) they have been seen in bright green and black.
- Caterpillars of the species display a surprising palette, from earthy brown to vivid green and even stark black. Their diet includes Convolvulus leaves and many members of the Araceae, Leguminosae and Malvaceae families, and in New Zealand they can become pests of cultivated sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), threatening a staple crop.
Sources
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At a glance
RangeEurope, Asia, Africa, Australia and New Zealand
HabitatWarm temperate regions
DietConvolvulus plant leaves
About the Convolvulus Hawkmoth
As the sun dips below the horizon, the Convolvulus Hawkmoth stirs, its delicate wings unfolding like a dark, velvety cloak as it takes to the evening air. With a mesmerizing flutter, it dances through the twilight, its long, probing proboscis dipping and weaving as it seeks out the sweet, heady nectar of its preferred convolvulus flowers. In this nocturnal waltz, the hawkmoth's remarkable migratory prowess is hinted at, for despite its fragile appearance, it is capable of traversing vast distances, a true marvel of endurance and navigation.
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