Ambulycini (Kawahara and Barber, 2015)

Timmermans, Martijn J. T. N., Daghmoumi, Sainab M., Glass, Deborah, Hamilton, Chris A., Kawahara, Akito Y. & Kitching, Ian J., 2019, Phylogeny of the Hawkmoth Tribe Ambulycini (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae): Mitogenomes from Museum Specimens Resolve Major Relationships, Insect Systematics and Diversity (AIFB) 3 (6), No. 12, pp. 1-8 : 7

Biogeography of Ambulycini

Although this study is not intended to be a formal biogeographical study of the Ambulycini , it is possible to draw some preliminary conclusions based on the results presented here.

The first three genera to split from the rest of the ambulycine tree, Barbourion , Ambulyx and Amplypterus , are essentially tropical South-east Asian in distribution (although some Ambulyx species occur in more northern temperate regions) and it is likely that this region is where the tribe originated.

To date, no analysis has recovered a monophyletic group comprising only the four New World genera, Adhemarius , Orecta , Protambulyx , and Trogolegnum . Instead, in all cases, Protambulyx is placed in a clade together with the Old World genera, Akbesia , Batocnema , and Compsulyx , the sister-group of which is a clade comprising Adhemarius , Orecta , and Trogolegnum . If the Ambulycini originated in the Old World, then it is still unclear whether there were two independent dispersal events to the New World (the Protambulyx and Adhemarius / Orecta / Trogolegnum lineages), a single such dispersal event followed by a second back to the Old World by the Akbesia / Batocnema / Compsulyx group, or an even more complex scenario. The ambiguity currently surrounding the phylogenetic relationships of these genera precludes a more objective biogeographical analysis.