I received an e-mail a few days ago with a great photo of a Striped Hawk-moth Hyles
livornica from Mansur Al Fahad who photographed the moths in Zulfi last
summer. He recorded them four times around his house and in his moth traps and method they were common in the area. 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. Mansur
kindly allowed me to use his photo on my website which is shown below.
