The Philippines

Attacus lorquinii courtesy of Leroy Simon

The Philippines are an archipelago between the Philippine Sea, the Sulu Sea and the South China Sea, east of Vietnam, due south of Taiwan, and just north of the Equator in Southeastern Asia. The total land area of the many islands is about 300,000 sq km, making the Philippines slightly larger than the state of Arizona. The climate is tropical marine with the northeast monsoon season from November to April and the southwest monsoon season from May to October. The terrain is mostly mountains with narrow to extensive coastal lowlands. Unfortunately the islands are exporters of locally-produced marijuana and hashish to East Asia, the US, and other Western markets, and they serve as a transit point for heroin and crystal methamphetamine. Thus any packages coming from the Philippines will probably be opened by Customs officials in the U.S. and Canada. To my knowledge, there are no problems with importation of Saturniidae (dead stock/papered specimens) to the U.S. or Canada, provided you are not bringing in CITES protected material. I recently received (January 12, 2004) a package of assorted Saturniidae from Elne Balquin, Mambucal Summer Resort, Barangay Minoyan, 6129 MURCIA, Negros Occidental, Philippines. The resort is near the center of Palawan.

Mindanao (14) and Luzon (14) are the islands from which the largest number of autochthonous Saturniidae species is known, followed by Leyte (11) and Palawan (10), Negros and Mindoro (9).

Attacus atlas (Linnaeus, 1758) In the Philippines A. atlas occurs only on the Babuyan Islands and the Batanes Island Group, located between Taiwan and the northernmost island Luzon.
Attacus caesar Maassen in Maassen & Weymer, 1873 Mindanao, Leyte, Samar, Bohol, northern Sula Archipelago
Attacus lorquinii C. & R. Felder, 1861 Luzon, Negros, Mindoro, Boac, Panay, Cebu, Masbote
Attacus lemairei Peigler, 1985 Palawan and Balabac

Samia luzonica (Watson, 1914) Leyte, Boac, Luzon, Negros, Mindoro, Samar, Panay
Samia treadawayi Naumann, 1998 Palawan

Actias philippinica philippinica Nässig & Treadaway, 1997 Mindanao, Luzon, Leyte Negros, Mindoro,and all other islands except Samar and Cebu
Actias philippinica bulbosa Nässig & Treadaway, 1997 Palawan
Actias brevijuxta brevijuxta Nässig & Treadaway, 1997 Luzon, Mindoro,
Actias brevijuxta brevinaensis Brechlin & Meister, 2012 Mindanao

Cricula trifenestrata treadawayi Nässig, 1989 Mindanao, Luzon, Leyte, Negros, probably widespread

Cricula luzonica luzonica Jordan, 1909 Luzon
Cricula luzonica leyteana Nässig & Treadaway, 1997 Leyte
Cricula luzonica kareli Nässig & Treadaway, 1997 Mindanao
Cricula mindanaensis Nässig & Treadaway, 1997 Mindanao
Cricula palawanica Brechlin, 2000 Palawan

Antheraea (Antheraeopsis) paniki Nässig & Treadaway, 1998 Mindanao, Leyte, Luzon, Negros, Mindoro,
Antheraea (Antheraeopsis) sahi Nässig & Treadaway, 1998 Palawan only

Antheraea (Antheraea) hagedorni Naumann, 2008 Luzon

Antheraea (Antheraea) halconensis Paukstadt & Brosch, 1996 Mindanao, Leyte, Negros, Mindoro, Luzon, not on Palawan
Antheraea (Loepantheraea Toxopeus, 1940) rosieri imeldae Nässig & Treadaway, 1998 Palawan only
Antheraea (Antheraea) larissa larissa (Westwood, 1847) probably limited to Indonesia, Thailand and Laos
Antheraea (A.) larissa ridlyi Moore, 1892 Palawan only maybe North Borneo
mindanarissa Brechlin, 2014, Mindanao
negrorissa Brechlin, 2014 probably Negros
philippirissa Treadaway & Nässig, 1997 updated as per Brechlin, R. & Meister, F. (2014); elevated to full species status
visayarissa Brechlin, 2014 central Philippines; possibly Leyte
Antheraea (Antheraea) mindoroensis Brosch & Paukstadt, 1996 Mindanao, Luzon, Leyte, Negros, Mindoro, widespread except Palawan
Antheraea (Antheraea) semperi semperi C. & R. Felder, 1861 Mindanao, Luzon, Leyte Negros, and other islands except Palawan and Mindoro
Antheraea (Antheraea) semperi noeli Nässig & Treadaway, 1998 Mindoro only (Panay, Luzon, Visayas; [Lumawigs])

Antheraea (Antheraea) gulata Nässig & Treadaway, 1998 Palawan
Antheraea (Antheraea) schroederi U. Paukstadt et al., 1999 Leyte, Negros, Panay no reports yet from Cebu, Mindoro, Bohol, and Masbote
Antheraea (Antheraea) zwicki Nässig & Treadaway, 1998 Palawan

Loepa nigropupillata Nässig & Treadaway, 1988 Luzon, Sibuyan
Loepa mindanaensis Schüssler, 1933 Mindanao only
Loepa palawana Nässig & Treadaway, 1997 Palawan only
Loepa visayana Brechlin, 2000 Leyte, Panay

Lemaireia schintlmeisteri Nässig & Lampe, 1989 Mindanao

* Antheraea rosieri imeldae, presently considered being a junior synonym of rosieri. Distribution: Palawan only of "imeldae". Presently rosieri is considered being a taxon of the subgenus Loepantheraea Toxopeus, 1940 = Antheraea (Loepantheraea).

Return to Southeast Asia

11. larissa larissa. The nominotypical subspecies larissa is from the island of Java only. On the Asian Mainland, Sumatra, Borneo, and Palawan the subspecies ridlyi is present, while mindoroensis occupies the remaining islands of the Philippines.

14. Antheraea gschwandneri zwicki. Presently the taxon zwicki is treated as a good species and has got nothing to do with gschwandneri, which was described from Sumatra and likely is present in Myanmar as well (= myanmarensis). Above error based on misinterpretations of gschwandneri and sumatrana by Nässig. The taxon myanmarensis is presently treated being a jun. syn. of gschwandneri by Naumann, but the female of true gschwandneri from Sumatra remains unknown.