MACROGLOSSUM POECILUM Rothschild & Jordan, 1903

Female Macroglossum poecilum. Photo: © NHMUK Male Macroglossum poecilum. Photo: © NHMUK

TAXONOMY

Macroglossum insipida poecilum Rothschild & Jordan, 1903, Novit. zool. 9 (suppl.): 643. Type locality: [Japan,] Loo Choo Is [Ryukyu Islands].

Synonym. Macroglossum poecilum ferrea (Mell, 1922).

Synonym. Macroglossum poecilum modestum Seitz, 1929.

[Further details on this species in Japan, as well as photos of many stages, can be found on Digital Moths of Japan.]


ADULT DESCRIPTION AND VARIATION

Similar to Macroglossum insipida. Forewing upperside with subapical spot in cell Rs3 dark reddish brown. Upperside of body and wings with a reddish flush. Abdomen upperside with dark paired spots prominent, the yellow lateral spots reduced. Abdomen underside with no black ventral patches.

Male genitalia similar to Macroglossum insipida, but aedeagus with more teeth near the base of the process, and the proximal tooth not much enlarged, much smaller than in Macroglossum insipida.


ADULT BIOLOGY


FLIGHT-TIME

China: vi (Hong Kong); ix (Hong Kong); 29.x (Hong Kong). Japan: vii-x (Ryukyu Archipelago).


EARLY STAGES

OVUM:

LARVA: Full-fed 50mm.


Full-grown larva of Macroglossum poecilum on Lasianthus fordii, Lianhuachih, Nantou Hsien, Taiwan. Photo: © Shipher Wu. Full-grown larva of Macroglossum poecilum on Lasianthus chinensis, Hong Kong, China. Photo: © Kent H. K. Li. Full-grown larva of Macroglossum poecilum. Image: Mell, 1922b

PUPA:


Pupa of Macroglossum poecilum. Image: Mell, 1922b Pupa of Macroglossum poecilum. Image: Mell, 1922b

Larval hostplants. Recorded from Lasianthus chinensis (Rubiaceae) in Hong Kong (Li, pers. comm. 2002). It takes Lasianthus fordii on Taiwan (ShiPher Wu, pers. comm. 2012), as well as Lasianthus verticillatus [syn. Lasianthus obliquinervis], Lasianthus attenuatus [syn. Lasianthus wallichii] and Paederia foetida.


PARASITOIDS


LOCAL DISTRIBUTION

China: Guangdong; Hong Kong (Sha Lo Tung; Tuen Mun; Tai Tam; Kam Shan).

Taiwan: Taipei Hsien (Fushan); Nantou Hsien (Lianhuachih).

Japan: Ryukyu Archipelago (Okinawa, Nago; Irimoteshima).


GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION

So far, only recorded from Hong Kong, Taiwan, southern Japan (Ryukyu Archipelago) and Malaysian northern Borneo (Sarawak, Sabah).


Global distribution of Macroglossum poecilum. Map: © NHMUK.

BIOGEOGRAPHICAL AFFILIATION



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© A. R. Pittaway & I. J. Kitching (Natural History Museum, London)