DISTRIBUTION:

Xanthodirphia amarilla (forewing length: males: 33-41mm; females 49mm) flies in
Costa Rica: Alejuela, Cartago, San Jose, Puntarenas (CL), Heredia, Limon (IB);
in habitats with elevations from 2700-3100m.

Xanthodirphia amarilla male, Costa Rica,
2900m, courtesy of Vernon A. Brou.

FLIGHT TIMES AND PREFERRED FOOD PLANTS:

Larval hosts are unknown.

Adults are on the wing in all months, except perhaps March.

ECLOSION, SCENTING AND MATING:

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

Males come in to lights readily, but females are seldom taken at lights.

Xanthodirphia amarilla female, Costa Rica, courtesy of Dan Janzen.

EGGS, LARVAE, COCOONS AND PUPAE:

Eggs are probably deposited in clusters on hostplant foliage.

Xanthodirphia amarilla larvae are probably gregarious and probably 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 foodplant will prove useful. The list is not exhaustive. Experimenting with closely related foodplants is worthwhile.

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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 "Xanthodirphia" chosen by Michener in 1949, but he probably saw similarities to the genus "Dirphia" chosen by Hubner in 1819. The first member of the genus was the yellow moth Xanthodirphia amarilla and 'xantho' is the Greek word for yellow.

The species name "amarilla" is the Spanish name for yellow.

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