Males use highly developed antennae to locate females by tracking their airbourne pheromone plumes.

Dirphia cadioui male in typical resting pose, copyright Kirby Wolfe.

Dirphia cadioui female, Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina,
December 19, 2010, courtesy of Nigel Venters.

The image of a female sent me by Nigel Venters represents a specimen considerably larger than indicated by Lemaire (88mm in Hemileucinae, 2002), but Lemaire's stated wingspan was based on examination of only a single specimen, probably a small one.

On January 10, 2011, Nigel writes, "I was starting to give up on the "huge Dirphia" eggs, when yesterday they started to hatch. I enclose a photo of the eggs, which are large, (for the size of the moth) and pure white. This photo shows most eggs that have hatched with a few remaining still to hatch. Interesting as when you see the photo I attached of the 1st instar larvae, they are almost black, but this is not visable through the eggshell, and the egg stays white right up to hatching. Another interesting thing was that they took 21 days to hatch, even in this heat here! To be honest, I can't see any difference in these eggs to the size and colour I have had of this species before.

"OK, some more thoughts from me! This is not the first time I have had a female D. cadioui, I have had about five in total, from both Tucuman and Calilegua, Jujuy. The reason I didn't send you an image of the females before was that I always kept them for eggs, and they were shattered by the time they finished. My observations are that Lemaire was basically correct, and all the other females I had were about the size he indicated, at around 85mms to 89mms. So although I still think you are right, and this is just a giant cadioui, I am still not 100% convinced!

Interestingly, I presented a cocktail of hostplants to these larvae, from both D.cadioui and D. muscosa hostplants listed on your site. They refused all of them, and, as I always offer extra optional hostplants from my garden, I was pleased to see (lucky?) that they have started to feed on a "Senna" like tree. It is not a Senna, as I have tried Senna feeders on it before, and failed, I do not know its name, but I will find out its correct name and get it to you.

Of course as these larvae develop it should be easy to see if it is just a "giant female," as the larger larvae seem very distinctive on your site, and it will be easy to i.d. then. Wish me luck as I will sleeve them on the tree tomorrow!"

Dirphia cadioui eggs, Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina,
January 9, 2011, courtesy of Nigel Venters.

Dirphia cadioui hatchlings, Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina,
on senna-like tree foliage, January 9, 2011, courtesy of Nigel Venters.

Dirphia cadioui second instars, Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina,
on Tipuana tipu, January 19, 2011, courtesy of Nigel Venters.

Nigel writes, January 19, 2011, "The female laid many eggs in fairly small batches of 15 to 20, and the larvae are very gregarious! They wait until the whole group have changed skin before they move off and start to eat again. Interestingly, when sleeved in the large sleeve on the tree, the batches don't combine, but keep in separate groups of the usual 15 to 20 larvae."

Dirphia cadioui third instars, Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina,
on Tipuana tipu, January 24, 2011, courtesy of Nigel Venters.

Nigel writes, "I noticed that for the first two instars, the D. cadioui larvae congregate on the leaves. After the start of the third instar, and when they are resting and not eating the leaves, they all move to the central leaf stem, and line up nose to tail along the stem. This occurs in several lines along the same section of stem, so the stem appears as a mass of sharp spines. A formidable barrier to predators no doubt!"

On January 26 Nigel writes, "I had a freak accident yesterday when shaking out the frass from the sleeve with the D. cadioui larvae. The sleeve was taught at the bottom as I shook out the frass, and then a single larva dropped, bounced off the taut bottom of the sleeve like a trampoline, directly into my face. It's amazing how quickly reflexes work as I closed my eye before it hit my eyelid. As we know the eyelid is soft sensitive skin, and within seconds it felt that my eyelid was on fire. This lasted for several hours, and gradually the eyelid swelled as if I has done 10 rounds with a boxer! I thought I'd take this picture this morning, very swollen, but not painful anymore, so I think we can say the larvae are very poisonous. I am not going to try them on my thicker skin elsewhere! Hope this is of interest!"

I reply, "That looks nasty. I am not aware of them being life threatening, but you should be very careful when handling them, It might even be wise to wear long sleeved shirt and gloves. Perhaps the pain and swelling were associated with the tenderness of location, but still not a good idea to take chances. I will post image of swollen eyelid to advise others that this species might be quite dangerous, painful at least."

Nigel writes, "48 hours later the swelling has gone down by 50%, but the eyelid, and the bag below the eye have both now broken out in painful scabs! This is a good larva to avoid contact with the spines! Not so sure I will try it on my hand later!"

Dirphia cadioui fourth instar, Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina,
on Tipuana tipu, January 31, 2011, courtesy of Nigel Venters.

Dirphia cadioui fourth instars, Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina,
on Tipuana tipu, January 31, 2011, courtesy of Nigel Venters.

Dirphia cadioui fourth instars, Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina,
on Tipuana tipu, January 31, 2011, courtesy of Nigel Venters.

Dirphia cadioui fourth instars, Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina,
on Tipuana tipu, January 31, 2011, courtesy of Nigel Venters.

Dirphia cadioui fourth instars, Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina,
on Tipuana tipu, January 31, 2011, courtesy of Nigel Venters.

Dirphia cadioui fifth instars, Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina,
on Tipuana tipu, February 4, 2011, courtesy of Nigel Venters.

On February 11, Nigel Venters writes, "These larvae are extremely gregarious at all stages, and as each instar progresses, they will wait until all have changed before moving again. Their movement is a single file (Indian file), where there seems to be a leader, and all others just follow. As they become larger, they spend all their time, (When not feeding) bunched together on a main branch/trunk, presenting a formidable barrier to predators I assume."

Dirphia cadioui sixth instar, Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina,
February 9, 2011, courtesy of Nigel Venters.

Dirphia cadioui sixth instar, Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina,
February 10, 2011, courtesy of Nigel Venters.

EGGS, LARVAE, COCOONS AND PUPAE:

Eggs are laid in large clusters and larvae feed gregariously. Typical of the Subfamily Hemileucinae, Dirphia species all have urticating spines, and this species is spectacular with its blue armaments.

Regarding foodplant, Kirby Wolfe writes, "I used laurel sumac, (Malosma laurina). Brazilian pepper (Schinus terebinthifolius) would probably work almost as well."

Nigel Venters writes, January 15, 2011: "I have now identified the hostplant on which I have the D. cadioui feeding. They are do very well and are just changing into second instar.

"It is possible, that by luck, I may have hit on the (or one of the) actual native hostplant(s), as the native range of this tree seems to exactly match the range of D. cadioui!

"The local name for this tree is Tipa, and its Latin name is Tipuana tipu, (Fabaceae). It is native of the "Yungas" or cloud forest areas of North West Argentina and Bolivia, which is exactly the range of the moth. The tree grows huge in its native area! To 30 meters and more, with a crown diameter of 25 meters. It is also commonly planted as an ornamental in Cordoba Province, (Where I live), as it doesn't grow so huge here, (10 meters max), and is very compact, with a dense "ball" of leaves and with a balloon shaped crown. An ideal shade tree in this hot and sunny area."

Tipuana tipu, Argentina, courtesy of Nigel Venters.

Nigel Venters sends this observation on March 2, 2011, "The larvae, after finishing feeding, wander for ages (2 or 3 days) before just drawing a few strands of silk together amongst the dead leaves and just pupate freely on the ground without a cocoon.

"These larvae also accept Elm, (Ulmus species) without question, and when transferred from their original hostplant, they don't hesitate at all to feed on Elm. I am using the introduced American Elm, but would hazard a guess that they would happily accept any Ulmus species."

Dirphia cadioui larva, copyright Kirby Wolfe.

Kirby has indicated that the strong bluish tint in his image of the larva, may in part be due to relection from the sky. The larvae reared by Nigel Venters did not have the same bluish colouration.

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.

Malosma laurina Schinus terebinthifolius ....... Tipuana tipu (NV) Ulmus americana (NV)

Laurel Sumac Brazillian pepper tree Tipu American Elm

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