Sphingonotus personatus Costa, 1885

Synonyms/other combinations:
Sphingonotus candidus personatus

Sphingonotus personatus: Male (Italy, Gargano, Lago di Varano, late September 2016) [N] Sphingonotus personatus: Male (Italy, Gargano, Lago di Varano, late September 2016) [N] Sphingonotus personatus: Male (Italy, Gargano, Lago di Varano, late September 2016) [N] Sphingonotus personatus: Male (Italy, Gargano, Lago di Varano, late September 2016) [N] Sphingonotus personatus: Male (Italy, Gargano, Lago di Varano, late September 2016) [N] Sphingonotus personatus: Male (Italy, Gargano, Lago di Varano, late September 2016) [N] Sphingonotus personatus: Male (Italy, Gargano, Lago di Varano, late September 2016) [N] Sphingonotus personatus: Male (Italy, Gargano, Lago di Varano, late September 2016) [N] Sphingonotus personatus: Female (Italy, Gargano, Lago di Varano, late September 2016) [N] Sphingonotus personatus: Female (Italy, Gargano, Lago di Varano, late September 2016) [N] Sphingonotus personatus: Female (Italy, Gargano, Lago di Varano, late September 2016) [N] Sphingonotus personatus: Female (Italy, Gargano, Lago di Varano, late September 2016) [N] Sphingonotus personatus: Habitat on the Adratic coast near Lago di Varano (Italy, Gargano, late September 2016) [N] Sphingonotus personatus: Habitat on the Adratic coast near Lago di Varano (Italy, Gargano, late September 2016) [N]

Habitat:
Sphingonotus personatus inhabits coastal dunes and is found especially in the transition zone of sandy beach and sparse vegetation.

Life cycle:
Adults should at least occur between July and early November. I recorded the adults in Italy (Gargano, Lago di Varano) in late September 2016. The individuals settled in the sand dune vegation that formed an a few meters broad stripe between beach and forest. Within this stripe they were most abundant in open spots of a few square meters.

Endangerment factors:
Sphingonotus personatus is heavily endangered in many regions of its distribution especially due to mass tourism and subsequent habitat destruction.

Remarks:
Sphingonotus personatus occurs only along the coasts of mainland Italy (largely with exception of the North). Closely related taxa occur in other parts of the Mediterranean. Formerly Sphingonotus personatus has been regarded as conspecific with the Sardinian Sphingonotus candidus



Sphingonotus almeriense | Sphingonotus azurescens | Sphingonotus caerulans | Sphingonotus candidus | Sphingonotus corsicus | Sphingonotus fuerteventurae | Sphingonotus guanchus | Sphingonotus imitans | Sphingonotus lluciapomaresi | Sphingonotus lusitanicus | Sphingonotus morini | Sphingonotus picteti | Sphingonotus rubescens | Sphingonotus sublaevis | Sphingonotus uvarovi