January 16, 2018 to February 14, 2019

Hi All,

Stefan Naumann recently sent me a publication with pictures and information about some recently described Saturniidae species from southern and Central Vietnam. I have recently posted files for the following species in red, and hope to have the others completed and posted very shortly. I will be working onn some of them today, January 16.

Saturnia (Rinaca) simloides;
Saturnia (Rinaca) thibetomima;
Saturnia (Rinaca) ngoclinhensis;
Lemaireia mediovietnama;
Cricula sokola;
Cricula acuta;
Actias laovieta;
Antheraea (Antheraea) scida;
Antheraea (Antheraea) luteofrithi;
Rhodinia extremaustralis;
Coscinocera misoolensis.

I will be updating national checklists and genera checklists as well. While working on the Lemaireia mediovietnama, listed above, I found there were some additional Lemaireia names that had been put forward, and I also found some additional images. The entire Lemaireia genus list has been updated as have individual Lemaireia species files.

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In Canada I am now sold out of all cocoons except for about fifteen Antheraea polyphemus available at $6.00 CDN plus postage plus HST or GST.

In the US, we still have polyphemus that can be shipped from Ohio; polyphemus and Coloradia doris ($5.00/pupa) that can be shipped from Colorado; and polyphemus and Eupackardia calleta ($8.00) that can be shipped from Texas. Everything else is sold out in USA.

Possibly we will hold off on shipping any more calleta until spring as they might not tolerate subfreezing temperatures. Exceptions could be made to shipping to southern states. Those who have already received calleta cocoons shouild not expose those cocoons to freezing temperatures.

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New member Thomas Maag has indicated he will soon be sending some images from Ghana, Africa, and new member Zhengyang Liu has already sent me some nice images from China and indcates he will be sending more from his rearings in that country.

I have received many images (Nudaurelia eblis bucholzi ) from Thomas Maag, and will be working on them today, January 16.

As soon as I have processed the images from Thomas, I will return to the new species from Vietnam.

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David Bygott has just sent me an interesting image of a fresh Tagoropsis specimen which is very weakly marked. I think it is Tagoropsis rougeoti largely due to 1) location at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary in central Uganda, 2) reduced markings, 3) pale colouration, and 4) non-produced forewing apices. I have only tentatively identified it as Tagoropsis rougeoti and have forwarded the image to Thirry Bouyer for his opinion.

Thierry has indicated it seems more like Tagoropsis hanningtoni to him, so I have posted the image to both the rougeoti and hanningtoni pages.

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Joao Amarildo Ranguetti has just sent me a very nice image of a live Automerella flexuosa female from Massaranduba, Santa Catarina, Brazil.

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I think I now have images of Arsenura arianae larvae posted, from Sumidero Canyon, Chiapas, Mexico.

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Andrew Aldercotte has recently sent me many images with data of Saturniidae from Panama. I am still working on them.

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I have recently ordered three new (2018) Entomo-Satsphingia journals from Frank Meister. These journals cover new Saturniidae species described in 2018. Many people express concern about possibility that the bar has been set too low with regard to the naming of new species based on DNA bardcoding analysis. I share that concern, but I am also aware that different habitats, especially when there are isolatiing factors (mountains, deserts, oceans, etc.) surrounding those biomes, can give rise to genetic changes, some of which may only be temporary.

I found it extremely interesting that upon return from Scott Kelly's one year stint of space travel, his “gene expression” – how genes are turned on and off – rather than the entirety of the DNA, revealed some interesting changes: http://theconversation.com/does-your-dna-really-change-in-space-93762

I am wondering if the recent DNA barcoding analysis results do not factor in differences (possible on-off switches) in their measurements. There is also good evidence supporting the concept, in simplicity expressed as "use it or lose it", that the body does not maintain structures that are no longer of use to it. I was facinated as a boy to read about and see pictures of blind cave fish, I think from Mexico, which spend their entire lives in caves where there is no natural light. Nature never ceases to amaze me.

I recently was asked for some id help with Saturniidae photos from eastern Orellana, Ecuador, near the border with Pastaza, Ecuador, and Loreto, Peru. The biome in this particular area is lower elevation Guiano-Amazonian rain forest, rather different from the rest of Ecuador where eastern and western Andean slopes habitats give rise to different species.

I am wondering how much elevation (oxygen levels, temperatures, relative humidity), magnetic fields, soil minerals and acidity, dry climates vs wet climates, potential food plants have to do with potential DNA changes over many many generations. In many areas near the equator where temperatures are warm and vegetation is lush, there are as many as five or more annual broods of various Saturniidae species.

Very subtle changes, influenced by the factors mentioned above, can possibly accrue into significant changes over thousands of years.

Here is a picture of an Automeris species reportedly from that area in Orellana.

Automeris species?? male, Yasuni National Park, Francisco de Orellana, Orellana, Ecuador,
courtesy of Andreas Kay.

I note the following:
1) forewing apex very slightly produced, outer margin slightly hollowed out below apex, remainder of outer margin slightly convex;
2) fw post median line: moderately pre-apical, very dark brown to black, slightly concave, without inner or outer tracing of lighter scales;
3) fw median band from costa to pml: distinct, not diffuse, dark brown, straight; 4) fw cell: very broad, sub-rectangular, darker grey than surroundings, not concolourous, black spots along edges and apices;
5) median field: clearly delineated by bounderies of am line, pm line and median band; very generous suffusion of tiny, silvery white suffusions giving the otherwise grey brown area a much lighter appearance than basal or post median areas; 6) fw ante-median line: dark brown to black, distinct, upper third straight and perpendicular to costa, middle third: bowl-shaped excavation toward body, bottom third stright and perpendicular to inner margin; without inner or outer lighter tracing;
7) basal area: dark brownish-gray with some heavier ssilvery white suffusions near body and on cosat and some orange suffusions towrd am line.
8) subtriangular patch between costa, pm line and median band shows larger silvery white spotting;
9) marginal area shows similar capping of subterminal band with larger, silvery-white spotting.

I have looked through all of Lemaire's images of Automeris in his Hemileucinae 2002, and I have looked through all of the Automeris images in the Entomo-Satsphingia journals from 2008-2017 and cannot find what I would consider a good match for this specimen, just based on the forewing as described above.

The closest species I can find from eastern Ecuador or Loreto, Peru are Automeris banus proxima from western Ecuador is not a bad match; banus argentifera (now argentifera with full species status) also from western Ecuador is not a bad match; banus banus from central America is not a bad match.
Automeris amanda subobscura shows some similarities as do other amanda-like species, but thus far subobscura is known only from elevations above 1300m, and am line, and cell and ground colours are not good matches.
Some of the Automeris abdominalis-like species are also fairly good matches, but they tend to be from higher elevations or from the other side of the Andes.

The hindwing suggests the moth belongs to one of the three goupings above. I would not be surprised if this moth is as yet undescribed/unnamed. I thought mabybe there would be a good match with abdominapoensis, but that seems to be a higher elevation species, with lighter inward tracing of pm line. There are better matches from western Peru and western Ecuador so there is also a possiblity that the collecting data is inaccurate.

The following Hirpida species was taken from the same area.

Hirpida species, Yasuni National Park, Francisco de Orellana, Orellana, Ecuador,
courtesy of Andreas Kay.

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Sphingidae Express

Joao Amarildo Ranguetti has recently (February 4) sent me a series of live Aellopos ceculus images frmo Massaranduba, Santa Catarina, Brazil. It is first time images of live ceculus are depicted on Sphingidae of the Americas website, and first time, to my knowledge, this species has been documented in Santa Catarina, Brazil.

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Catocala Capers

John Kozial received confirmation from Larry Gall that his specimens taken in Saskatchewan are indeed Catocala badia coelebs and Catocla umbrosa, and that Catocala antinympha has not been taken in Saskatchewan. I have updated those species files and the Saskatchewan page.

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