DISTRIBUTION:

Periphoba parallela (wingspan: males: 100-104mm; females: 130mm) flies in
southeastern Brazil: Santa Catarina and Parana (CM). Lemaire indicates it may fly as far north as Rio de Janeiro. I think the image sent to me from Sao Paulo is likely that of P. parallela.

FLIGHT TIMES AND PREFERRED FOOD PLANTS:

This species flies in June and possibly in other months (I suspect September). 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.

Periphoba parallela female, Joinville, Santa Catarina, Brazil,
on my home computer only.

EGGS, LARVAE, COCOONS AND PUPAE:

Eggs are probably deposited in clusters on hostplant foliage.

Periphoba parallela larvae are 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 parallela ?? fifth instar, Caraguatatuba, Sao Paulo, Brazil,
November 2016, Maria Ogrzewalska, tentative id by Bill Oehlke

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.

Return to Periphoba Index

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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 "parallela" is for the dark-brown, oblique, parallel antemedial and postmedial lines.

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