The large striped brown adult hawk moths of southern Africa
Here is some illustrated ID help for the large striped brown adult hawk moths. This is not necessarily an exhaustive selection, and I'm sure more species will come to light in future.
The WHITE STRIPED browns
These moths have white (or pinkish) stripes running vertically down the wing.
Photo credits: Hyles livornica @henrydelange | Rhodafra opheltes @ricky_taylor | Basiotha charis @janet_taylor | Basiotha schenki @steveball
The BROWN STRIPED browns
Most of the Hippotions and a couple of Theretras. Check abdomen markings (or lack thereof) and the shape, width and colour of the median band when ID'ing your moths. There is quite a lot of variation within a species, and older, worn moths can look very different to freshly emerged adults.
Photo credits: Hippotion balsaminae @botswanabugs | Hippotion eson @moira_fitzpatrick | Hippotion celerio @suncana | Theretra monteironis @riana60 | Hippotion osiris @ajdyason | Hippotion aporodes (probably) @jeanpaulboerekamps | Theretra cajus @colin25
This was knocked up pretty quickly, so please let me know of any errors or omissions ;-)
Thank you very much, as always, to the photographers for their wonderful images!
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