Nephele funebris

Description

Nephele funebris is a moth of the family Sphingidae. It is very common throughout most of the Ethiopian Region, excluding Madagascar and the Congo-Cameroon equatorial forest belt, where it is replaced by Nephele maculosa. The length of the forewings is 33–39 mm. It is very similar to Nephele comma, but less variable in colour. Usually it is some shade of dark olive brown. It can be separated from N. comma by the presence of five large blackish lateral spots on the abdomen and by the much more irregular margin of the terminal area of the forewings, which does not contrast in colour with the remainder of the wing. The typical form has no stigma, or at most a minute whitish dot. Form conimacula has a silvery white stigma in the shape of a longitudinal wedge-shaped spot, sometimes surmounted proximally by a much smaller elongated spot. The larvae have a red-brown head and body. The body is minutely streaked with black. The pupa is made in a slight web among litter on the surface of the soil. It is reddish chestnut in colour.