Paradaemonia ruschii
Updated as per Lemaire's Arenurinae 1980, October 17, 2005; July 24, 2006
Updated as per personal communication with Luigi Racheli (Peru), August 2007
Updated as per personal communication with Carlos Mielke (Santa Teresa, Espirito Santo, Brazil), June 2009

Paradaemonia ruschii
pair-uh-day-MOH-nee-uhmmROOSH-kee-eye
May & Oiticica, 1943

Paradaemonia ruschii male, Loreto, Peru, courtesy of Luigi Racheli.
Slight digital restoration by Bill Oehlke, and left side copied to right.

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: Arsenurinae, Jordan, 1922
Tribe: Arsenurini, Jordan, 1922
Genus: Paradaemonia, Bouvier, 1925

MIDI MUSIC

"The.Girl.from.Ipanema"
midi by Mel Webb

ON.OFF
<bgsound src="Ipanem.mid" LOOP=FOREVER>

DISTRIBUTION:

The Paradaemonia ruschii moth (wingspan: males: 90-113mm; females: 100mm) flies in
Brazil: Espirito Santo: Santa Teresa; and
eastern Ecuador: Morona-Santiago; and
Peru: Loreto, reported by Luigi Racheli.

This smaller species has males with longer, narrower tails, widening at the tips, and a more pronounced and squarer forewing apex.

FLIGHT TIMES AND PREFERRED FOOD PLANTS:

Paradaemonia ruschii female, Santa Teresa, Espirito Santo, Brazil, courtesy of Carlos Mielke.

ECLOSION, SCENTING AND MATING:

Paradaemonia ruschii males use their antennae to seek out females which scent at night.

Paradaemonia ruschii male, Ecuador,
courtesy of Horst Kach.

Paradaemonia ruschii male, Ecuador,
courtesy of Horst Kach.

EGGS, LARVAE AND PUPAE:

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 "ruschii" is honourific for Ruschi.

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