NORTHWESTERN BRAZIL: ACRE

Many thanks go to all the individuals who have contributed images and/or information and have helped with identifications and corrections to flesh out the active links listed below.

These provisional checklists of the different Saturniidae subfamilies/tribes have been largely created by going through the information provided in the four great Saturniidae works by the late Dr. Claude Lemaire of France: Attacidae (1978), Arsenurinae (1980), Ceratocampinae (1988) and Hemileucinae (2002). Dr. Lemaire's confirmations for Acre are indicated with an asterisk (*).

I have made many of my own interpolations from those works, particularly if a species was described from surrounding Brazilian states or other nearby countries with a similar biome (Tropical Rain Forest; Amazonica). Those interpolations are followed by "?" to indicate I have no confirmed reports, but I anticipate the species has a range including the state of Acre.

The Brazilian states in the North Region have not been sampled for Saturniidae nearly as well as those states in the South, Southeast, and Center-West Regions. I suspect there are many omissions in these listings, and there would also be many omissions in the Northeast Region which is also poorly sampled as of this writing, February 10, 2016.

Many new species have been described since the publications of Dr. Lemaire works and much effort has been made and continues to be made with revisions to the lists. Those species recently described in the Entomo-Satsphingia Journals: 2008-2015, by Brechlin & Meister have an (e) following their names.

This website is designed and maintained by Bill Oehlke. If you have additions, corrections, data, images, etc., please send to Bill Oehlke.

Practically all of the terrain of Acre is part of the low sandstone plateau, or terra firme, the morphological unit which dominates most of the Brazilian Amazon. These terranes rise, in Acre, from the southeast to the northeast, with very tabular topography in general. In the extreme west is found the Serra da Contamana or Serra do Divisor, along the western border, with the highest altitudes in the state being only 609m. Thus only low elevation Saturniidae species would be found in Acre.

Please help with the improved accuracy and usefulness of this data base by providing images and information (dates, precise locations, elevations) to include on the species files. All images used will be credited to respective photographers and those images remain the property of the photographers.

Many thanks to Rafael Almeida who has begun, in 2018, to send images of moths encountered in Cruzeiro do Sul (180-195m), in northwestern Acre, Brazil. Those species confirmed by Rafael, based on my determinations, are followed by RA.

Rafael also provided an image from Guajara, Amazonas, only slightly to the north of Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil. If my id is correct for that specimen, then Arsenura albopicta also flies in Acre. I think the list below is reasonably accurate.

Eacles imperialis cacicus female, Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil,
July 25, 2018, courtesy of Rafael Almeida.

Adeloneivaia catoxantha male, Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil,
August 8, 2018, courtesy of Rafael Almeida, id by Bill Oehlke.

Adeloneivaia catoxantha male, Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil,
August 8, 2018, courtesy of Rafael Almeida, id by Bill Oehlke.

Arsenurinae Arsenura albopicta RA? Arsenura a. armida ? Arsenura batesii ? Arsenura ciocolatina * Arsenura delormei ? Arsenura fuscata ? Arsenura mossi ? Arsenura ponderosa ? Arsenura rebeli ? Arsenura sylla RA Arsenura tho. lemairei ? Copiopteryx semiramis ? Copiopteryx jehovah ? Dysdaemonia. australoboreas ? Dysdaemonia boreas Grammopelta lineata ? Loxolomia johnsoni ? Paradaemonia nycteris ? Paradaemonia platydesmia ? Paradaemonia sa. sambdensis ? Paradaemonia siriae ? Rhescyntis hermes hermes ? Rhescyntis her. hermandensis ? Rhescyntis hip. hippodamia RA Titaea lemoulti ? Titaea tamerlan amazonensis ? Titaea timur ?

Ceratocampinae Adeloneivaia acuta ? Adeloneivaia boisduvalii ? Adeloneivaia c. catoxantha RA Adeloneivaia orientoanden. ? Adeloneivaia pelias ? Adeloneivaia subangulata ? Adelowalkeria eugenia ? Citheronia aroa ? Citheronia hamifera ? Citheronia phoronea ? Citioica anthonilis ? Eacles barnesi ? Eacles imperialis cacicus RA Eacles penelope ? Othorene hodeva ? Procitheronia fenestrata ? Ptiloscola photophila ? Schausiella longispina ? Schausiella polybia ? Schausiella subochreata ? Syssphinx amena ? Syssphinx molina ?

Hemileucinae Automerina carina ? Automerina caudatula ? Automerina cypria ? Automerula auletes ? Automeris duchartrei ? Automeris egeus ? Automeris hamata ? Automeris janus ? Automeris rostralis ? Gamelia rubriluna RA Hyperchiria incisa gadouae ? Hyperchiria nausica ? Lonomia achelous ? Lonomia descimoni ? Pseudautomeris salmcolombiana RA? Pseudodirphia eumedidoides ? Saturniinae Saturniini Copaxa amazpandens ? Copaxa madrediosiana ? Saturniinae Attacini Rothschildia aurota auroamaz. ? Rothschildia arethusa rhodina ? Rothschildia ery. erycina RA Rothschildia hes. hesperus ? Rothschildia inca inca ?

Pseudautomeris salmcolombiana, male, Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil,
180-195m, June 13, 2018, courtesy of Rafael Almeida, tentative id by Bill Oehlke.

Relatively little Saturniidae sampling/collecting/reporting has been done in Acre in western Brazil, and the same can be said for the eastern portions (Amazonia) of the Peruvian departments of Loreto and Ucayali, immediately to the west of Acre. Thus the list above is quite tentative, and I certainly expect there are omissions, and very likely some species listed which are not present. It is also possible that over time there will be some new species revealed through DNA barcoding analysis. I am not at all sure of the image above, listed as Pseudautomeris salmcolombiana. It seems closer to salmcolombiana than to any other species known to science at this time, but it could also be an example of a range extension of salmonea, or it could be something as yet undescribed.

I am hopeful that Rafael Almeida and others will continue to provide images, and that someday science will confirm what is actually present.

Additional images, as they arrive, will be posted below.

Rhescyntis hippodamia hippodamia female, Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil,
August 15, 2018, courtesy of Rafael Almeida.

Arsenura sylla sylla male, Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil,
July 19, 2019, courtesy of Rafael Almeida.

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