Perigonia lusca

Guadeloupe, Deshaies, Morne Bois-d'Inde, 20-IV-80

Perigonia lusca (Fabricius 1777)

Sphingidae Macroglossinae

Systematics

According to Haxaire, the status of Perigonia needs to be thoroughly revised. Several species occur in the Lesser Antilles, but they are not really well defined, as type specimens are often females. We have chosen to use only one name, Perigonia lusca, for these hawk-moths in the Lesser Antilles.
The works of Pinchon (1969) and Chalumeau and Delplanque (1974) consider two species: Perigonia lusca and P. lefebraei (Lucas). According to Pinchon, the moths with hindwings completely brown are P. lefebraei (picture 1 below). According to Chalumeau and Delplanque, both lusca and lefebraei have a medial yellow patch on hindwings, the former shows a yellow spot at the anal angle (picture 4 below), whereas lefebraei has a greyish patch at the anal angle (pictures 2 and ?3). P. lefebraei was described from Cuba and seems to be different from these.