Leucophlebia lineata

Large candy-striped hawkmoth
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Sphingidae
Genus:	Leucophlebia
Species:	L. lineata
Binomial name
Leucophlebia lineata Westwood, 1847[1]
Synonyms
Leucophlebia luxeri - Boisduval, 1875 (Proposed as a new substitute name for Leucophlebia lineata, but erroneously treated as the valid name for the Sundaland populations of Leucophlebia lineata by Eitschberger in 2003)

Leucophlebia lineata (large candy-striped hawkmoth) is a moth of the Sphingidae family. It is known from Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Thailand, eastern and southern China, Taiwan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia (Peninsular, Sarawak), Indonesia (Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Flores, Sulawesi) and the Philippines.^[2] It is a minor pest of sugarcane.^[3][4]

Description

The wingspan is 62–82 mm. The forewing upperside is similar to other Leucophlebia species in having broad pinkish costal and outer marginal areas and a paler median band, but differs in having the hind margin paler, nearer the colour of the median band, and with some picked out in white. The larvae feed on coarse grasses of the Poaceae family.

In, The Fauna Of British India Including Ceylon And Burma Moths Vol-1, the species described as follows.

"palpi and frons brown; antennae ochreous; vertex of head and sides of thorax and abdomen pale pink; a brownish ochreous stripe on vertex of thorax and abdomen. Fore wing bright pink; a yellow stripe from the base of cell to apex, widest beyond the cell; a short narrow yellow streak in the interno-median interspace from the base; veins 2,3 and 4 white, with some diffused fuscous below them. hind wing tawny. Cilia yellowish white. The form rosea from South India and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), is rather smaller and darker than typical lineata. Larva green covered with tubercles; a broad white lateral stripe; head white, with a pink streak on gulae; horn and legs pink."

—The Fauna Of British India Including Ceylon And Burma Moths Vol-1.^[5]

References

1. "CATE Creating a Taxonomic eScience - Sphingidae". Cate-sphingidae.org. Retrieved 2011-11-01.
2. "Leucophlebia lineata Westwood, 1848". India Biodiversity Portal. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
3. Pittaway AR; Kitching I. "Sphingidae of the Eastern Palaearctic". Tpittaway.tripod.com. Retrieved 2011-11-01.
4. "Leucophlebia lineata". Insect Life Forms. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
5. Hampson G. F. (1892). "The Fauna Of British India Including Ceylon And Burma Moths Vol-i". Digital Library of India. p. 558. Retrieved 4 July 2016.