Narrative

Adhemarius ypsilon is found from Mexico into Peru. The dark forewings and red and black pattern in the rear wings help identify this species.

The red color will help identify this lifeform.

This lifeform is found widely in the New World tropics.

Adhemarius genus is found in the New World tropics. These moths have comparatively narrow long front wings compared to the rear wings. The rear wings are colorful and include yellow, orange, or red. DAbrera (1986) lists the following ten species: Adhemarius gannascus Adhemarius ypsilon - Mexico to Peru Adhemarius palmeri - Colombia to south Brazil Adhemarius eurythenes - Colombia to south Brazil Adhemarius tigrina - Venezuela to Peru Adhemarius sexoculata - Colombia, Venezuela to Bolivia and Brazil Adhemarius donysa - Central America Adhemarius dariensis - Costa Rica and Panama Adhemarius gagarini - Brazil Adhemarius germanus - Brazil Heppner (1996) also counted ten species by adding three and reclassifying three from the DAbrera list: Adhemarius blanchardorum Adhemarius dentoni Adhemarius globifer Moving Adhemarius germanus to a subspecies of Adhemarius gannnascus Moving Adhemarius gargarini to a subspecies of Adhemarius gannascus Moving Adhemarius dariensis to a subspecies of Adhemarius donysa Kitching and Cadiou (2000) add the following three species to the DAbrera list for a count of 13 species: Adhemarius blanchardorum Adhemarius dentoni Adhemarius globifer Kitching and Cadiou retained as full species: Adhemarius germanus Adhemarius gargani Adhemarius dariensis as full species.

Sphingidae family contains approximately one thousand species of heavy-bodied moths with strong wings. They are very fast fliers. Most species can hover like hummingbirds. Many of them have a very long proboscis which can be inserted deep into a flower to sip the various nectars. Because of their excellent ability to fly, most species have rather large geographical ranges.

Sphingidae herein are split into three major groups: New World Sphingidae, African Sphingidae, and Eurasia Sphingidae.

Butterflies and Moths (Order Lepidoptera) are a group of insects with four large wings. They go through various life cycles including eggs, caterpillar (larvae), pupae, and adult. Most butterflies and moths feed as adults, but primarily do most of their growing in the larval or caterpillar stage. Also, most species are restricted to feeding as caterpillars upon a unique set of plants. In this pairing of insects to plants, there arises a unique plant population control system. When one plant species becomes too common, specific pests to that species also become more common and thus prevent the further spreading of that particular plant species.

Although most people think of the Lepidoptera as two different groups: butterflies and moths, technically, the concept is not valid.

Some families, such as Silk Moths (Saturnidae) and Hawk Moths (Sphingidae), are clearly moths. Other families, such as Swallowtail Butterflies (Papilionidae), are clearly butterflies, However, several families exhibit characteristics that appear to be neither moths nor butterflies. For example: the Castnia Moths of South America are frequently placed in the Skipper Family (Hesperidae). The Sunset Moths (Uranidae) have long narrow antennae and fly during the day.

Note: Numerous museums and biologists have loaned specimens to be photographed for this project.

Insects (Class Insecta) are the most successful animals on Earth if success is measured by the number of species or the total number of living organisms. This class contains more than a million species, of which North America has approximately 100,000. (Recent estimates place the number of worldwide species at four to six million.)

Insects have an exoskeleton. The body is divided into three parts. The foremost part, the head, usually bears two antennae. The middle part, the thorax, has six legs and usually four wings. The last part, the abdomen, is used for breathing and reproduction.

Although different taxonomists divide the insects differently, about thirty-five different orders are included in most of the systems.

The following abbreviated list identifies some common orders of the many different orders of insects discussed herein:

Odonata: - Dragon and Damsel Flies
Orthoptera: - Grasshoppers and Mantids
Homoptera: - Cicadas and Misc. Hoppers
Diptera: - Flies and Mosquitoes
Hymenoptera: - Ants, Wasps, and Bees
Lepidoptera: - Butterflies and Moths
Coleoptera: - Beetles

Jointed Legged Animals (Phylum Arthropoda) make up the largest phylum. There are probably more than one million different species of arthropods known to science. It is also the most successful animal phylum in terms of the total number of living organisms.

Butterflies, beetles, grasshoppers, various insects, spiders, and crabs are well-known arthropods.

The phylum is usually broken into the following five main classes:
Arachnida: - Spiders and Scorpions
Crustacea: - Crabs and Crayfish
Chilopoda: - Centipedes
Diplopoda: - Millipedes
Insecta: - Insects

There are several other rare classes in the arthropods that should be mentioned. A more formal list is as follows:

Sub Phylum Chelicerata
C. Arachnida: - Spiders and scorpions
C. Pycnogonida: - Sea spiders (500 species)
C. Merostomata: - Mostly fossil species

Sub Phylum Mandibulata
C. Crustacea: - Crabs and crayfish

Myriapod Group
C. Chilopoda: - Centipedes
C. Diplopoda: - Millipedes
C. Pauropoda: - Tiny millipede-like
C. Symphyla: - Garden centipedes

Insect Group
C. Insecta: - Insects

The above list does not include some extinct classes of Arthropods such as the Trilobites.