"Smerinthus ocellatus atlanticus" is sometimes treated as a full species, in which case "Smerinthus atlanticus protai" is placed as a subspecies of this species, rather than "Smerinthus ocellatus".The name "Smerinthus" is apparently derived from the Greek feminine noun 'Merinthos', but has been Latinised with the masculine -us ending and is thus, according to the ICZN article 30.1.3, masculine.