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Acherontia
Laspeyres
Type species: atropos Linnaeus.
Synonyms: Brachyglossa Boisduval (type species atropos); Atropos Agassiz
(type species atropos), praeocc.
The tongue is short, thick, hairy: the body is stout, the legs short and
stout. The thorax bears a characteristic 'death's head' skull-like
pattern. The forewings are dark greyish brown with irregular fasciae and a
pale discal spot. The hindwings are yellow, banded with dark brown as is
the abdomen, the latter having a broken dorsal blue band. The adult
squeaks, probably by expelling air from the trunk.
In the male genitalia the uncus is long, slender, entire. The harpe is
apically bilobed or bifid, somewhat as in Agrius.
The horn of the larva is tuberculated, the larva itself usually yellowish
green with blue and yellow oblique stripes. The tongue case in the pupa is
not free. Most host plant records are from the Solanaceae.
The genus contains three species, two described below plus the African and
western Palaearctic type species (D'Abrera, 1986. 12).
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