DISTRIBUTION:

Periga pulchra (wingspan: males: 54-61mm; females: 66-73mm // forewing length: males: 28-32mm; females: 39-40mm) flies in
Brazil: Parana; Santa Catarina; Rio Grande do Sul; at elevations of 700-1300m.

The male forewing, uniform yellowish-brown to carmine, is slightly elongated. The apex is neither acute nor produced. The outer margin is convex to slightly convex. The submarginal band is sometimes slightly darker, sometimes almost invisible, and is slightly marked by yellow scales distally.

The antemedial and postmedial lines are gray, the former partially bordered with yellow distally, the latter pre-apical, straight, and very clearly and heavily bordered with yellow or pale yellow proximally.

There are two prominent whitish discal spots surrounded by dark gray, connected by a narrow dark gray streak with or without a tiny white dot midway.

The hindwing is colored as the forewing; antemedial line slightly marked, postmedial line gray, partially bordered with yellow proximally.

Periga circumstans? male (probably P. alticola, possibly P. pulchra), Itanhandu, Minas Gerais, Brazil,
February 22, 2011, 925m, courtesy of Larry Valentine.

The specimen from Minas Gerais is significantly north of stated range for pulchra, yellow highlights are not as pronounced on lines as should be and am line shape is not in keepig with pulchra, but pm line is preapical, more so than would be expected for alticola, so I am not sure of id.

FLIGHT TIMES AND PREFERRED FOOD PLANTS:

Moths are on the wing in January-February and December. There may be additional flight months. Larval hosts are unknown.

ECLOSION, SCENTING AND MATING:

Females extend a scent gland from the tip of the abdomen, and the night-flying males detect 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.

Periga pulchra larvae are probably 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.

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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 "Periga" chosen by Walker in 1855.

The species name "pulchra" is indicative of the striking beauty of this species.

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