Sphingidae of the Eastern Palaearctic

ROTHINJOA LEUCOMELAS (Rothschild & Jordan, 1915)

Male Rothinjoa leucomelas, Sai Yok, Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand. Photo: © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London.

TAXONOMY

Poliana leucomelas Rothschild & Jordan, 1915, Novitates Zoologicae 22: 283. Type locality: Cambodia, Phnom Penh.

Note. Transferred to Rothinjoa by Zolotuhin & Ryabov, 2012, Hawkmoths of Vietnam: 200. This species was initially classified within the genus Poliana Rothschild & Jordan, 1903, before being reassigned to the monotypic genus Rothinjoa.

ADULT DESCRIPTION AND VARIATION

Male: The head is greyish-black with white hairs. The thorax is similarly greyish-black with a prominent white patch dorsally on the upperside, while the underside is densely covered with white hair. The abdomen is greyish-black dorsally, with two wavy white stripes, a black lateral stripe on each segment, and a central black patch on the white underside. The forewing is narrow and triangular with a sharp apex; the outer margin is smooth, and the distal part of the inner margin is slightly concave. The upperside ground colour is white, with a black zigzag line and an expanded black-greyish patch extending between veins M3 and CuA2. The discal spot is white, and there are two dark grey patches near the apex and tornus. On the underside, the ground color is brownish-black, with grey curved lines across the middle area; yellow hairs cover the area from the basal to the tornus. The hindwing upperside is blackish, with a grey-white tornal area and two white oval patches near the tornus; the margin has alternating black and white hairs. The underside ground colour is brownish-black, with grey curved lines in the medial area, and dense white scales scattered from the base to the tornus. Female: Similar to the male, but with broader wings, a slightly darker and more extensive ground pattern, and significantly more slender antennae (Jiang et al., 2025).

Male genitalia: The uncus and gnathos form the characteristic 'bird-beak' structure typical of Sphinginae. The uncus is curved upwards with a sharp apical hook, while the gnathos is straight, shorter, and thicker, with a blunt apex. The valve is tongue-shaped, with the terminal part broader than the basal part, and with a blunt apex. The sacculus is robust, apically divided into two sharp-hooked lobes; the longer upper lobe is curved and points upwards, while the shorter lower lobe is thicker and curves downwards. The phallus is slender, with a weakly sclerotized anterior lobe bearing tiny teeth dorsally and ventrally (Jiang et al., 2025).