TITAEA OF THE WORLD
Updated as per Lemaire's Arsenurinae 1980, November 3, 2005
Updated as per personal communication with Luigi Racheli (raveni) August 2007

TITAEA OF THE WORLD

Titaea orsinome grey female, Reserva Vale da Solidão,
14o22’S 56o07’W, Mato Grosso, Brazil, courtesy of Eurides Furtado copyright.

TITAEA HUBNER, [1823]

The Titaea genus belongs to the Arsenurini tribe of Subfamily Arsenurinae, Family Saturniidae.

The Arsenurini are a primitive tribe of very large moths (wingspans 150-200 mm) found in tropical South and Central America. All of them dwell in rain forests except for the montane species, Arsenura cymonia, which flies at altitudes above 1500 m.

Larvae, which are well adorned with thoracic and anal "horns" in early instars, but lack the protuberances (scoli) of most other Saturniidae species in the final instar, are large (120 mm), smooth-skinned, cylindrical and thick and pupate in subterranean chambers.

Titaea tamerlan guayaquila larva copyright Kirby Wolfe

In some cases a very flimsy cocoon, just a few strands of silk, is spun under leaf litter.

P indicates a photograph is available. The first country listed is the type locality.

Listing of Titaea:

P guayaquila (Schaus, 1932) Ecuador, Peru
raveni F. Johnson & Michener, 1948, Peru is/was a synonym for guayaquila (see below, but now, 2007, elevated to full species status)
P lemoulti (Schaus, 1905) French Guiana, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru
P orsinome Hubner, [1823] Brazil, Bolivia
latifascia Walker, 1855, Brazil is a synonym for orsinome
P raveni (F. Johnson & Michener, 1948) Peru
P tamerlan tamerlan (Maassen, 1869) southeastern Brazil
P tamerlan amazonensis Lemaire, 1980 Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Brazil, Colombia, Peru
P tamerlan nobilis (Schaus, 1912) Costa Rica, Mexico, Belize, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru
P timur (Fassl, 1915) Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru

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