Polythysana rubrescens
pol-lee-thigh-ZAY-nuhMroo-BRES-sens
(Blanchard, 1852) Attacus rubrescens

Polythysana rubrescens male courtesy of Kirby Wolfe.

This site has been created by Bill Oehlke at oehlkew@islandtelecom.com
Comments, suggestions and/or additional information are welcomed by Bill.

TAXONOMY: Superfamily: Bombycoidea Latreille, 1802 Family: Saturniidae Boisduval, [1837] 1834 Subfamily: Hemileucinae, Grote & Robinson, 1866 Tribe: Polythysanini, Michener, 1952 Genus: Polythysana, Walker, 1855

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DISTRIBUTION:

The Polythysana rubrescens moth (forewing length: males: 33-44mm; females: 45-54mm) flies in
central Chile (33-41 S latitude): Coquimbo, Santiago, Colchagua, Nuble, Concepcion, Malleco, Cautin, Valdivia, Osorno, and
west central Argentina: Neuquen, Chubut, and probably Rio Negro.

It has been taken at altitudes from 300m to 750m.

Polythysana rubrescens, male, Curico, Chile,
March 19, 2005, courtesy of Hubert Mayer.

Many thanks to Fernando Calvo for pointing out the labelling/identification error in specimen above (changed from cinerascens [incorrect] to rubrescens [correct]).

FLIGHT TIMES AND PREFERRED FOOD PLANTS:

The Polythysana rubrescens caterpillar shows a preference for the evergreens: Mayten (Maytenus boaria) and Cryptocarya Rubra (Cryptocarya rubra).

Lemaire reports Kageneckia oblonga and Aristotelia chilensis.

Moths are on the wing during the months of February-March and possibly as a second brood in November-December.

ECLOSION:

Adults eclose from simple, pear-shaped, open mesh cocoons.

SCENTING AND MATING:

Polythysana rubrescens females emit an airbourne pheromone and males use their highly developed antennae to track the scent plume during the day to locate the calling females.

EGGS, CATERPILLARS, COCOONS AND PUPAE:

Mature larvae spin a simple, pear-shaped, open mesh cocoon. This species is regarded as a pest on farmed Monterrey Pine. Look carefully at the image below to see the extremely well camouflaged larva.

Polythysana rubrescens larva courtesy of Kirby Wolfe.

Larval Food Plants

Listed below are primary food plant(s) and alternate food plants listed in Stephen E. Stone's Foodplants of World Saturniidae and/or on various internet sites. 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.

Aristotelia chilensis Cryptocarya rubra ........ Kageneckia oblonga Maytenus boaria

Maqui Cryptocarya Rubra Kageneckia oblonga Mayten

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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 "Polythysana" chosen by Walker in 1855.

The species name "rubrescens" refers to the red on the hindwings.

This page is designed and maintained by Bill Oehlke as part of the World's Largest Saturniidae Site.