I received
an e-mail a few days ago with some great photos of a Striped Hawk-moth from
Elizabeth Ayouby who lives in Dhahran Hills. Her family found the moth in their
garden over the last weekend, a moth I have yet to see in Saudi Arabia. The
Striped Hawk-moth is the most common Hawk-moth in Arabia, it is an insect of
the open desert where it breeds on a number of different plants. It flies at
night and migrates to other countries reaching as far north as Scandinavia. A successful breeding season often occurs
after heavy rain with vast numbers of moths occurring. The thorax of the
Striped Hawk-moth has four distinct white stripes running lengthways, and the
antennae have white tips. There is a white dorsal stripe running along the
abdomen and each of the underwings has a bright red patch. Elizabeth kindly
allowed me to use her photos on my website which are shown below, with the top photo having a business card shown for scale.
