TAXONOMY:Superfamily: Bombycoidea, Latreille, 1802 |
Eacles ormondei ormondei male, Cortes, Honduras, courtesy/copyright Eduardo Marabuto.
The specimen type for the nominate subspecies is Mexico: Veracruz. Various subspecies have been recognized with the following specimen type locales
(from north to south):
I do not know if one subspecies relaces another as per the listings above or whether there are dry forest/rain forest species in the same country or high elevation, medium elevation,
low elevation species that might fly in the same countries. Nor do I know where the range of one subspecies ends and another begins. I will do my best to try to match
the images that are presented to me to the information and documentation I have on hand.
Eacles ormondei yucatanensis, Mexico: Yucatan (HT);
Eacles ormondei janzeni, Nicaragua: Jinotega (HT) and Sergovia; and Costa Rica: Alajuela; Heredia; Guanacaste;
Eacles ormondei vanschaycki, Costa Rica: Limon (HT) and Cartago;
Eacles ormondei niepelti, Colombia (HT);
Eacles ormondei violacea, Ecuador (HT);
Eacles ormondei peruviana Peru (HT).
Visit Eacles ormondei males, La Ceiba (120m), Atlantida and La Muralla (1420), Olancho, Honduras, courtesy of Robert Lehman.
Natural hosts are Prunus annularis, Guarea glabra and Meliosme glabrata. In captivity Quercus and Rhus laurina are accepted.
Eacles ormondei female, Chiapas, Mexico, courtesy of Kirby Wolfe.
Eacles ormondei female courtesy of Dan Janzen.
Eacles ormondei ormondei female, Claude Lemaire.
Eacles ormondei ormondei male, Claude Lemaire.
Lemon-yellow, translucent eggs are deposited singly or in small clusters of up to six. The larvae become visible through the egg shells a day or so before emerging.
At maturity, larvae descend trees to pupate in underground chambers. Pupae should be stored under cool , but above freezing temperatures, and sprinkling with water a few times a week in spring encourages subsequent eclosions.
Larvae often take on a pinkish-purplish hue at pupation time as evidenced by the full-sized larva below.
 The following images are from Guatemala courtesy of Viktor Suter and Bernhard Wenczel and probably are the nominate subspecies.
Eacles ormondei ormondei yellow, fifth instar, |
Guarea glabra | Mahogany |
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The pronunciation of scientific names is troublesome for many. The "suggestion" at the top of the page is merely a suggestion. It is based on
commonly accepted English pronunciation of Greek names and/or some fairly well accepted "rules" for latinized scientific names.
The suggested pronunciations, on this page and on other pages, are primarily put forward to assist those who hear with internal ears as they read.
There are many collectors from different countries whose intonations and accents would be different.
Some of the early describers/namers chose genus and species names indicating some character of the insect, but more
often, they simply chose names from Greek or Roman mythology or history. Those species names which end in "ensis" indicate a
specimen locale, and those which end in "i", pronounced "eye", honour a contempory friend/collector/etc.
I do not know the source of the genus name "Eacles", but it may be a combination of "Ea", the Greek word for gods and goddesses and the Greek
suffix "cles", meaning 'glory of'.
The species name "ormondei" is honourific for Ormonde.
