Dirphiella taylori

Updated as per Lemaire's Hemileucinae 2002, January 5, 2005
Updated as per personal communication with Dr. Manuel A. Balcazar Lara
Updated as per personal communication with Bernhard Wenczel (Oaxaca, Mexico, 2300m); June 10, 2012
Updated as per personal communication with Ryan Saint Laurent (Oaxaca, Mexico, 60mm, August, 1990): June 26, 2013
Updated as per Entomo Satsphingia, Jahrgang 7 Heft 3 30.09.2014; December 8, 2014

Dirphiella taylori
(Donahue & Lemaire, 1975) Ormiscodes

Dirphiella taylori courtesy of Dr. Manuel A. Balcazar Lara

TAXONOMY:

Superfamily: Bombycoidea, Latreille, 1802
Family: Saturniidae, Boisduval, [1837] 1834
Subfamily: Hemileucinae, Grote & Robinson, 1866
Tribe: Hemileucinae, Grote & Robinson, 1866
Genus: Dirphiella, Michener, 1949

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DISTRIBUTION:

Dirphiella taylori (wingspan: males: 55-66mm; females: females: unknown) flies in
Veracruz and Oaxaca, Mexico. Sometimes this moth is improperly listed with Ormiscodes.

A very similar moth, Dirphiella pseudotaylori is described from Oaxaca, Mexico, by Brechlin and Meister in 2014.

In both the male and female of D. pseudotaylori there is a dark suffusion of scales in the forewing costal region just inside the outer edge of the cell (absent in taylori), and the dark section of the forewing pm line in pseudotaylori, although dark, is not as wide as it is in taylori.

The hindwing, black pm line is more angulate and thinner in pseudtaylori than in taylori. I have not seen a female of taylori depicted, but the female images submitted by Bernhard Wenczel and Viktor Suter seem a very good match for D. pseudotaylori.

FLIGHT TIMES AND PREFERRED FOOD PLANTS:

This montane species flies at night in July and August.

Dirphiella taylori/pseudotaylori?? female, Oaxaca, Mexico,
between the villages San Gabriel de Mixtepec and San Pedro Juchatengo,
cloud forest, 2300m, courtesy of Bernhard Wenczel and Viktor Suter.

Dirphiella taylori/pseudotaylori?? female (verso), Oaxaca, Mexico,
between the villages San Gabriel de Mixtepec and San Pedro Juchatengo,
cloud forest, 2300m, courtesy of Bernhard Wenczel and Viktor Suter.

ECLOSION, SCENTING AND MATING:

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

Dirphiella taylori male, Oaxaca, Mexico,
60mm, August 24-25, 1990, Cornell University Collection, courtesy of Ryan Saint Laurent.

EGGS, LARVAE, COCOONS AND PUPAE:

Eggs are probably deposited in clusters on hostplant foliage.

Dirphiella taylori larvae are highly gregarious and 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.