DISTRIBUTION:

The Copiopteryx sonthonnaxi moth (forewing wingspan: males: 80-102mm; females: 87-107mm) flies in
southeastern Brazil: Rio de Janeiro; Parana (CM); Sao Paulo; Santa Catarina.

Ulf Drechsel reports them in eastern Paraguay: Atlantic Forest: Guaira, and Paul Smith reports them in PN San Rafael, Itapua, Paraguay.

Copiopteryx sonthonnaxi, Guaira, Paraguay, courtesy of Ulf Drechsel.

FLIGHT TIMES AND PREFERRED FOOD PLANTS:

Copiopteryx sonthonnaxi flies late at night. There is a February flight in Paraguay. This species may also fly in other months. Pia Oberg reports them at 1250m in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Copiopteryx sonthonnaxi courtesy of Clive Pratt.

Based on the acute angle notch in the median line, I suspect the moth depicted above is Copiopteryx jehovah, but the flared tails suggest sonthonnaxi as does the relatively narrow hyaline triangle at the middle of the median line.

Larvae feed on Mimusops.

Copiopteryx sonthonnaxi, San Rafael, Itapua, Paraguay,
February 2007, courtesy/copyright Paul Smith.

ECLOSION, SCENTING AND MATING:

Females have much shorter hind wing tails than males do, and emit a pheromone at night to "call" in the males.

Copiopteryx sonthonnaxi male

Copiopteryx sonthonnaxi Rio Vermelho, Santa Catarina, Brazil,
courtesy of Daniel Rojas Lanus.

EGGS, LARVAE AND PUPAE:

Early instar larvae are spiny and hatch from eggs after approximately fourteen days of development.

Tiny larvae feed on leaf tips from underside veins.

Pupation is in early (pre-dawn) morning in subterranean chambers.

Larval Food Plants

Listed below are primary food plant(s) and alternate food plants listed in Stephen E. Stone's Foodplants of World Saturniidae. It is hoped that this alphabetical listing followed by the common of the foodplant will prove useful. The list is not exhaustive. Experimenting with closely related foodplants is worthwhile.

Mimusops........

Coast red-milkwood

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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.

The genus name "Copiopteryx" comes from the Greek word "pterygion" for wing.

The species name "semiramis" is probably from Semiramis, the wife of Nimrod and queen of Babylon. The subspecies name "sonthonnaxi" is to honour Sonthonnax who also described many species.