Regarding the images from Sao Paulo, this is a Periphoba species, either parallela, courtini or something undescribed. Courtini is described from Bahia, but supposedly has rusty-yellow antennae and the forewing median field broadens somewhat toward the costa, more so than in parallela where am and pm lines are quite parallela. P. parallela is described from Santa Catarina and has straw yellow antenna and very parallel lines (good match for this image), but in parallela the hindwing discal spot is somewhat less prominent and is described as tangent to the median band. These images are not a perfect match for either of those two species, but I would tend to favour courtini, and would not be at all surprised if it is something undescribed, a transitional species between parallela and courtini along the Brazilian coast between Bahia and Santa Catarina.

TAXONOMY: Superfamily: Bombycoidea, Latreille, 1802 Family: Saturniidae, Boisduval, [1837] 1834 Subfamily: Hemileucinae, Grote & Robinson, 1866 Tribe: Hemileucinae, Grote & Robinson, 1866 Genus: Periphoba, Hubner, 1820

DISTRIBUTION:

Periphoba courtini (wingspan: males: 97-102mm; females: larger // mfwl: 51-54mm; females: larger) flies in
Brazil: Bahia: Amargosa. It has been taken in habitats of degraded forest at an elevation of 500m. Possibly it ranges at least as far south as Sao Sebastiao, Sao Paulo, and as far north as Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil.

FLIGHT TIMES AND PREFERRED FOOD PLANTS:

A specimen has been taken in the dry season (March). There are probably additional flight months, October being one of them. Larval hosts are unknown.

ECLOSION, SCENTING AND MATING:

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

EGGS, LARVAE, COCOONS AND PUPAE:

Eggs are probably deposited in clusters on hostplant foliage.

Periphoba courtini larvae are probably highly gregarious and have the urticating spines typical of larvae from the Subfamily Hemileucinae.

The long pair of posterior "spikes", and the more extensive anterior "spinage" are typical of mature Periphoba larvae.

Periphoba fifth instar, Extremoz, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil,
September 8, 2016, courtesy of Francierlem Oliveira.

I favour Periphoba courtini for the above image as courtini is described from similar habitat and elevation in eastern Bahia. I believe it was found on or near plum.

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.

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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.

I do not know the source of the genus name "Periphoba" chosen by Hubner in 1820.

The species name "courtini" is honourific for B. Courtin.

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