Caracterização Morfológica de Sphingidae (Lepidoptera)

Abstract

Sphingids are moths, mostly nocturnal, with about 200 genera and 1200 species described worldwide (Lemaire and Minet cited by Motta and Andreazze, 2001). Motta; Ferreira; Aguiar (1991); Motta (1993), citing Moss, pondered that the knowledge of the feeding behavior of adults and immatures (caterpillars) of these moths is of fundamental importance for the understanding of the population dynamics of various plants and for the management of plants useful to man. They are easily recognized by their characteristic adult form: the body is generally streamlined, the head is rounded and the abdomen is tipped (coniform). They have two well-developed compound eyes. The mouth apparatus is of the sucking type (spirotromba), exclusive to lepidopterans. The antennae in most species are filiform, with a prismatic basal part and recurved tips. The wings are strongly ribbed, the anterior ones being narrow and long, the posterior ones broad and short. A few species have sexual dimorphism as to color pattern, and often the males are smaller than the females. They have complete metamorphosis (holometabolia). The caterpillars (larvae) are cylindrical, some of them tapered or enlarged in the first segments; practically smooth, without bristles (glabrous). They are defoliators, including species used by humans, such as rubber, manioc and cassava. Herbivory can be generalist for certain species. However, most are manifested by preferences ranging from monophagy to dependence on a limited number of host plants (oligophagy), making sphingid caterpillars potential biological indicators of both the presence and population density of certain plants, by the relative abundance of the occurrence of their adults.