Dryocampa rubicunda
drye-oh-KAM-puhMroo-bih-KUN-duh
(Fabricious, 1793) Bombyx rubicunda

Dryocampa rubicunda (male) scan by Bill Oehlke

TAXONOMY:

Superfamily: Bombycoidea, Latreille, 1802 Family: Saturniidae, Boisduval, [1837] 1834 Subfamily: Ceratocampinae Harris, 1841 was Citheroniinae Neumoegen & Dyar, 1894 Genus: Dryocampa Harris, 1833 Species: rubicunda, (Fabricius, 1793)

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DISTRIBUTION:

Dryocampa rubicunda, the Rosy Maple Moth (wingspan: males: 32-44mm; females: 40-50mm), flies throughout the eastern half of the United States northward to southern Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

Dryocampa rubicunda male, Florida, courtesy of Leroy Simon.

FLIGHT TIMES AND PREFERRED FOOD PLANTS:

On Prince Edward Island, rubicunda begin flying in late May and are still around in mid August as a single generation (might be two broods as a small number of my reared brood stock emerged in August 2004). Partial or even full (ESK) second broods are sometimes encountered in the New England states, but south of the Carolinas there are two and possibly even three broods with moths on the wing from January to October.

Dryocampa rubicunda pair, Dotsonville, Montgomery County, Tennessee,
July, 2013, courtesy of Tom Payne.

Elliot S. Krafsur of Shepherdstown, West Virgina writes, "There are clearly two broods of rosy maple moths here in the Shenandoah Valley (WV) and in nearby Maryland.

"I think you should move the northern limit for bivoltine moths to New England.

"Most first generation larvae provide adults in August although a fraction of what I have reared have overwintered "Just now (July 3, 2013) the first brood larvae are pupating. I get wild adults at blacklight every August."

Maples, particularly red and silver and sugar, are the prefered host plants for rubicunda.

Dryocampa rubicunda male, Peterborough, Ontario,
June 2-3, 2005, copyright protected, courtesy of Tim Dyson.

There can be considerable variation in the amount of pink on the forewing.

Dryocampa rubicunda male, Stevens Point, Wisconsin,
copyright protected, courtesy of Viktor Suter.

The female typically has less pink than the male, and she has a large abdomen, filled with small golden-yellow eggs.

Dryocampa rubicunda female, Stevens Point, Wisconsin,
copyright protected, courtesy of Viktor Suter.

There is an all white form which is not a distinct species. Tim Dyson sends this image of a pair, post copula, from Peterborough, Ontario. The male, almost pure white, is form alba.

Dryocampa rubicunda, post copula, Havelock/Cordova Mines, Peterborough, Ontario,
courtesy of Tim Dyson.

ECLOSION, SCENTING AND MATING:

Males and the slightly larger females eclose from 4:00 to 8:00 pm and mating occurs from 10:00-12:00 the same evening.

Both sexes come to lights, but males seem to be much more prevalent. Captured females will oviposit readily in brown paper bags.

I enjoy the following series of images of a male, courtesy of Alex Baranowski. I find this species very easy to rear here on Prince Edward Island in eastern Canada. I put a paired or wild captured female in an inflated, brown paper lunch bag. She will often lay over 200 eggs (if she is fresh) all over the insides of the bag. A day or so before the eggs are scheduled to hatch, I poke a hole in the bottom of the bag and poke a stem of red maple foliage, still affixed to tree, through the hole so that emergent caterpillars can climb directly onto the foliage.

I then place one of my sleeves, six feet long with a 7.5 foot circumference over the branch and open it to shake out the frass every few days. For the first few weeks one would hardly know there is anything in the bag as larvae tend to be quite small and are higly gregarious.

I keep a closer eye on the sleeve once the foliage starts to disappear noticeably, and usually divide the larvae into much smaller numbers, probably only thirty larvae to a simarly sized sleeve.

At the first sign of larvae leaving the foliage to crawl around on the sleeve material, I move all the larvae into large thirty gallon clear plastic tubs with snug fitting tops.

I cut a few maple limbs and put them into the tubs and insert the larvae. Larvae which have finished feeding and are crawling around bottom of large plastic tubs, are put into sandwich sized plastic tubs with a paper towel folded to fit inside and cover the bottom of the smaller tub. Each of these smaller tubs is usually good to handle 20-30 mature larvae that are ready to pupate. No foliage is placed in the pupation tubs.

I check the large tubs at least every other day, move prepupal larvae to the much smaller pupating tubs, clean out the frass and old foliage and provide fresh foliage. Usually within a week, all the larvae have been moved to the smaller pupation tubs.

The larvae will soon crawl under the paper towel or between its folds and usually pupate withing 3-5 days.

Dryocampa rubicunda male, courtesy of Alex Baranowski.

Dryocampa rubicunda male, courtesy of Alex Baranowski.

Dryocampa rubicunda male, courtesy of Alex Baranowski.

EGGS, LARVAE AND PUPAE:

Pale yellow eggs are laid inclusters of 20-30 on undersides of hostplant foliage. Incubation can last up to two weeks.

Larvae are gregarious through first three of five instars, but in the final two instars they become solitary. With mature larvae attaining lengths of 55 mm, much damage can be done to maple trees during an extremely favorable year for rubicunda. Small heads and strong mandibles often allow this larva to escape through sleeves.

Image courtesy of Tony Thomas

Dryocampa rubicunda firth instar, Stevens Point, Wisconsin,
copyright protected, courtesy of Viktor Suter.

Dryocampa rubicunda fifth instar, Florida, courtesy of Leroy Simon.

Larvae will pupate readily without soil in small plastic tubs. When larvae are nearly mature, I remove them from sleeves, and place them in large (approximately 20 gallons) plastic tubs with cut food.

I inspect the tubs daily and place those larvae, which have left foliage and are crawling around bottom of the tub, in the small sandwich sized ziploc tubs for pupation. I will put as many as six larvae in a small tub.

I overwinter the hardened pupae in large numbers in a small ziploc tub between layers of very slighly damp (single drip of water) paper towel.

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.

Acer monspessulanum Acer negundo Acer pseudoplatanus....... Acer rubrum Acer saccharinum Acer saccharum Acer spicatum Fagus grandifolia Juglans cinera Quercus coccinea Quercus ilicifolia Quercus laevis Quercus nigra Quercus velutina

Montpelier maple Box elder/Manitoba maple Sycamore maple Red maple Silver maple Sugar maple Moose Maple American beech Butternut Scarlet oak Bear oak Turkey oak Water Oak Black oak

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.

The species name "rubicunda" comes from the Latin, meaning red.

The genus name "Dryocampa" probably comes from the Greek "dryo" meaning tree and "campa" meaning camp. This may allude to the large numbers (camp) that sometimes defoliate tress.

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Montague, PEI: Female taken at lights, June 10, 2009; several males taken earlier by a few days.