DISTRIBUTION:

Paradaemonia mayi (wingspan: males: 116-127mm; females: 114-127mm) flies at elevations of 500 - 1500 meters in damp tropical woodlands of
southeastern Brazil: Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Parana, Santa Catarina.

Lemaire in his Arsenurinae 1980 lists this species as endemic to southeastern Brazil, with the possibility of range into Paraguay. I suspect it is limited to southeastern Brazil.

FLIGHT TIMES AND PREFERRED FOOD PLANTS:

There are probably at least two generations annually with moths probably on the wing in February and then probably again in June and July. I have no actual data or foodplant information.

Since last posting, Enio Branco reports an August flight in Sao Paulo.

Paradaemonia mayi, Sao Paulo, Brazil, August 6, 2014,
courtesy of Enio Branco.

Paradaemonia mayi, Tapirai, Sao Paulo, Brazil, August 19, 2014,
courtesy of Enio Branco.

Paradaemonia mayi, female, Rio Natal, 500 m, Sao Bento do Sul, SC, Brazil,
courtesy of Carlos Mielke copyright.

ECLOSION, SCENTING AND MATING:

Males use their antennae to seek out females which scent at night. Both sexes come in to lights from 11:30 pm until 2:00 am.

EGGS, LARVAE, COCOONS, AND PUPAE:

Pupae are formed in a porous, dark brown cocoon.

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.

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 "Paradaemonia" chosen by Bouvier in 1925. It could be because these moths are so similar to "Dysdaemonia", a combination meaning 'bad spirit'.

The species name "mayi" is honourific for E. May who supplied the holotype.

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