DISTRIBUTION:

Lemaireodirphia rosivora (wingspan: males: 77mm; females: 93mm // forewing length: males: 40-42mm; females: 50mm) flies in
Mexico: Oaxaca; at elevations near 750-1950m.

In Oaxaca it appears to be quite common with specimens taken in San Gabriel Mixtepec; Puerto Angel; San Juan Atepec; and possibly in Veracruz: Las Minas. Visit Lemaireodirphia Comparison Chart.

Many years ago Eric van Schayck sent me four cds with over a thousand images of Saturniidae from his collection. In the journal publication naming and describing L. rosivora, Brechlin & Meister indicate DNA barcoding of three of Eric's specimens (2 males and 1 female) proved the specimens to be L. rosivora.

Several of the recently described Lemaireodirphia species are quite similar, and I do not know if the following image is of L. rosivora or of one of the other recently described species. I favour rosavora for the following reasons:
1) the forewing pm line is broadly preapical, passing tangent to the outer edge of the cell veins;
2) the fw pml is broadly white, only faintly outlined in a very diffuse brown, slightly darker than rest of pm area;
3) the fw pml runs almost straight from the costa to the M2-M3 intraneural area where it begins a slight inturn, becoming concave to mmidpoint of intraneural area Cu2- 1A where it turns decidely inward to the nner margin;
4) the forewing pml has three light brown indentations along its inner edge in its upper reaches;
5) the ground colour is an almost uniform light brown with a slight reddish tint.

The only significant difference I see in the Entomo-Satsphingia journal L. rosivora image and the Eric Van schayck image (below) is that in the EVS image the white pml turns slightly outward as it reaches the upper edge of the costa, whereas the journal image shows a slight inturn in the same area, perhaps more similar to L. chiapasiana whose fw pml is not so broadly preapical and has much gentler turns in its course.

Lemaireodirphia rosivora male, Mexico,
courtesy of Eric van Schayck.

On the same CDs from Eric comes the following image of a female Lemaireodirphia which I think is either L. centralis or L. rosivora. It was originally sent as Paradirphia hoegei. The Entomo-Satsphingia journal image of the female L. rosivora shows a moth with a relatively thin and almost perfectly straight white pm line, less preapical and thinner than that seen in the male. The EVS image (below) has a decided curve/angle in the pm line. more suggestive of the female L. centralis. Brechlin & Meister indicate that one of the male specimens that Eric submitted for DNA barcoding is a male centralis. Apparently the two species are sympatric in San Gabriel Mixtepec.

Paradirphia centralis (female) or rosivora, Mexico, courtesy of Eric van Schayck.

FLIGHT TIMES AND PREFERRED FOOD PLANTS:

Larvae possibly feed on Rosa.

This species is on the wing from June until October, probably as two broods.

ECLOSION, SCENTING AND MATING:

Females extend a scent gland from the tip of the abdomen, and the night-flying males pickup and track the airbourne pheromone plume with their well-developed antennae.

Lemaireodirphia rosivora female, Oaxaca, Mexico,
on my home computer only.

EGGS, LARVAE, COCOONS, AND PUPAE:

Eggs are deposited in clusters on hostplant foliage.

Lemaireodirphia albida larvae are highly gregarious and have the urticating spines typical of larvae from the Subfamily Hemileucinae.

Larval Food Plants

It is hoped that this alphabetical listing followed by the common name of the anticipated foodplant will prove useful. The list is not exhaustive. Experimenting with closely related foodplants is worthwhile.

Rosa .......

Plane Cherry Rose

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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.

The genus name "Lemaireodirphia" is both honourific of Claude Lemaire and indicative of a great similarity to moths in the genus Dirphia.

The species name "rosivora" is indicative of a host plant (Rosa) of the larvae. They would not accept the oak or beech preferred by other species.

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