Anisota consularis
Dyar, 1896

Anisota consularis female, courtesy of Leroy Simon.

This site has been created by Bill Oehlke.
Comments, suggestions and/or additional information are welcomed by Bill.

TAXONOMY: Superfamily: Bombycoidea, Latreille, 1802 Family Saturniidae Boisduval, [1837] 1834 Subfamily: Ceratocampinae, Harris 1841 Genus: Anisota, Hubner, 1820 ("1816") Species: consularis, Dyar, 1896

DISTRIBUTION:

Anisota consularis (wingspan: males: 29-36mm; females: 42-52mm) flies throughout Florida, northeastward into eastern Georgia and South Carolina, and westward into warm coastal areas of Alabama, Mississippi and Lousiana.

Males tend to be lighter brown in colour than A. virginiensis and have a sprinkling of black dots. There is a white spot in the cell and a weak hyaline area extending from the cell into the post median area of the forewing which has purplish grey scaling in the basal and post median areas.

Females can be with or without speckling and with or without contrasting colour in median and post median areas. Very similar to A. stigma females, A. consularis tend to be slightly smaller, with less speckling and a more convex forewing outer margin.

Anisota consularis pair, Spring Creek, Decatur County, Georgia,
male: July 16, 1912; female: August 11,
Cornell University Collection, courtesy of Ryan Saint Laruent.

FLIGHT TIMES AND PREFERRED FOOD PLANTS:

There is a single brood with moths on the wing from July through early September.

Consularis larvae feed upon Quercus virginiana (preferred hostplant) and other Quercus species such as falcata, laevis, myrtifolia, nigra and palustris.

Anisota consularis male (left), Levy County, Florida,
female (right) Alachua Coounty, Florida, courtesy of Derek Bridgehouse.

ECLOSION, SCENTING AND MATING:

Anisota consularis moths emerge in the morning and females begin scenting around 10:00 am, and the pair remain coupled for up to two hours. Males have a poorly developed hyaline area.

EGGS, LARVAE AND PUPAE:

Eggs are deposited in large clusters of up to 100 eggs, usually on the undersides of oak leaves.

Larvae are gregarious but divide into smaller clusters as they progress and many become solitary feeders in the final instar. There is considerable variation in larval colour, from green to light brown to dark brown, and in development of scoli, even in the same brood. The longitudinal black stipes tend to be distinct, and the scoli below the lateral stripe tend to be well developed.

This mature larva will shortly descend tree trunk to pupate under the soil.

Anisota consularis fifth instar, Sebring, Highlands County, Florida,
August 4, 2009, copyright/courtesy of Tim Lethbridge, 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.

Quercus falcata Quercus laevis Quercus myrtifolia...... Quercus nigra Quercus palustris Quercus virginiana

Southern red oak Turkey oak Myrtle oak Water oak Pin oak Live oak

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