I do not know if the spread specimen depicted above was captured in San Lorenzo or simply housed there at Museo Nacional de Historia Natural del Paraguay. Lemaire lists it from further north and east, but it could be in Central Department.

This site has been created by Bill Oehlke.
Comments, suggestions and/or additional information are welcomed by Bill.

TAXONOMY: Superfamily: Bombycoidea, Latreille, 1802 Family: Saturniidae, Boisduval, [1837] 1834 Subfamily: Ceratocampinae Harris, 1841 was Citheroniinae Neumoegen & Dyar, 1894 Genus: Giacomellia, Bouvier, 1930 Species: drechseli, Lampe, 1995

DISTRIBUTION:

Giacomellia drechseli flies in
Paraguay: Alto Paraguay, Madrejon, 150 m (CL), Boqueron and Presidente Hayes (UD).

Giacomellia drechseli, Paraguay, courtesy of Ulf Drechsel.

FLIGHT TIMES AND PREFERRED FOOD PLANTS:

Giacomellia drechseli probably flies in January, May and again in the fall.

Larval hosts are unknown.

Giacomellia drechseli, Paraguay, courtesy of Ulf Drechsel.

If you are a plain white moth, you might as well have some fancy leggins.

ECLOSION, SCENTING AND MATING:

Adult Giacomellia drechseli moths emerge from subterranean pupae, and males are slightly smaller than females.

EGGS, LARVAE AND PUPAE:

Night-flying females lay translucent eggs on host plant leaves. The developing larvae can be seen through the egg shells.

Larvae pupate underground in small chambers.

Care of larvae and pupae should be as for any Neotropical species.

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.

Return to Main Saturniidae Index

Return to Giacomellia Index

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.

Ezequiel Osvaldo Nunez Bustos writes, "The name of the genus is honourific for an Italian entomologist that lived many years in La Rioja Province. His name was Eugenio Giacomelli, and he described some new species in the areas of La Rioja and Cordoba."

The species name "drescheli" is honourific for Dreschel (Ulf??).