''Rhagastis albomarginatus'' is a

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

of the family Sphingidae.

Distribution

It is known from the

Himalaya The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

and

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

Description

The forewing upperside has the first and third postmedian lines reduced to a series of prominent vein dots, the second postmedian line is very weak or absent, There is an inconspicuous and diffuse pale patch and a similar but less marked pale area. The pale band is reduced to an ill-defined patch near the anal angle. The fringe is weakly dentate with white with brown vein spots. The costal edge is at least partly creamy white. The hindwing underside has a small black discal spot.

Biology

Larvae of subspecies ''R. a. dichroae'' have been recorded feeding on '' Vernicia montana'' and '' Dichroa febrifuga'', while the larvae of subspecies ''R. a. albomarginatus'' feed on '' Dichroa'', '' Hydrangea'' and ''

Vitis ''Vitis'' (grapevine) is a genus of 79 accepted species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus is made up of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, b ...

'' species. The larva of the nominate subspecies are green marked with pale blue as early instars. The final instar has a pale blue head. The body is dorsally yellow, grading laterally to pale grass green or bluish green, the flanks of the abdomen are crossed by long, oblique, pale blue stripes. The thorax is longitudinally striped. The horn is dark blue.

Subspecies

*''Rhagastis albomarginatus albomarginatus'' (Himalaya, Taiwan, Myanmar) *''Rhagastis albomarginatus dichroae'' Mell, 1922 (China) *''Rhagastis albomarginatus everetti'' Rothschild & Jordan, 1903 (Indonesia, including Borneo and Sumatra) Rhagastis albomarginatus everetti MHNT CUT 2010 0 101 Sumatra male dorsal.jpg, ''R. a. everetti'', dorsal view Rhagastis albomarginatus everetti MHNT CUT 2010 0 101 Sumatra male ventral.jpg, ''R. a. everetti'', ventral view

References

Rhagastis Moths described in 1894 {{Macroglossini-stub