Hyalophora columbia gloveri
hye-uh-lah-FOR-uhMkuh-LUM-bee-uhMGLUV-er-eye
(Strecker, 1872) Platysamia Gloveri

Hyalophora columbia gloveri (southwestern U.S.) scan by Bill Oehlke

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

TAXONOMY: Superfamily: Bombycoidea, Latreille, 1802 Family: Saturniidae, Boisduval, [1837] 1834 Subfamily: Saturniinae, Boisduval, [1837] 1834 or Attacinae, Blanchard,1840 Tribe: Attacini, Blanchard, 1841 Genus: Hyalophora, Duncan, 1841

DISTRIBUTION:

Glover's Silkmoth, Hyalophora columbia gloveri (wingspan 12-14 cm) fly in Washington and eastern and southwestern Oregon and over the region of the Rocky Mountains from Arizona in the South to Alberta and Assiniboia, Saskatchewan, in the North. Bill McEwen gets them in Colorado, and Derek Bridgehouse shares some images from Utah.

Hyalophora columbia gloveri variations from Utah:
Cache; Grand; Davis Counties, courtesy of Derek Bridgeshouse.

David Tilden of Northwest Territories, Canada, has recently sent me a confirmation of Hyalophora columbia gloveri from Trout Lake, NWT. David reports this is an extremely rare occurrence with only one other record from Hay River in 1904.

Patrick White has also sent a series of beautiful images of Hyalophora columbia gloveri from Montana.

Hyalophora columbia gloveri male, Montana,
courtesy of Patrick White.

Visit Hyalophora columbia gloveri, male, female, eggs, third, fourth and fifth instar, Colorado and Arizona, courtesy of Leroy Simon.

Visit Hyalophora columbia gloveri male, courtesy of Darrell Gulin.

Visit Hyalophora columbia gloveri larva and subsequent emergent moth, western Josphine County, southwestern Oregon, July 28, 2009, courtesy of Edna Woodward.

Hyalophora columbia gloveri, Malheur County, eastern Oregon, late May 2005, Larry McQueen.

In Mexico it has been recorded in the states of Chihuahua and Durango.

H. c. gloveri habitat, Geronimo's Trail, Douglas, Arizona, courtesy of Russell Witkop.

H. c. gloveri habitat, Geronimo's Trail, Douglas, Arizona, courtesy of Russell Witkop.

Specimens I have seen from the southern United States are much larger and brighter than the specimens I have seen from western Canada.

Hyalophora columbia gloveri male, Leatham Hollow, Cache County, Utah,
May 15, 2020, courtesy of Derek Bridgehouse.

Derek writes, "Here’s a pic of a small and unique H. c. gloveri. Note the white discal spots on FW are greatly reduced giving the moth a strange appearance.

FLIGHT TIMES AND PREFERRED FOOD PLANTS:

There is a single brood with eclosions from April-May until July depending upon temperature and elevation. Willow seems to be a favorite foodplant in the South.

It is usually quite difficult to rear this species out of its natural habitat. Breeders who attempt to rear euryalus and gloveri along the East Coast of the U.S. seldom see the larvae through to the cocoon stage with most fatalities coming in the late instars.

Hyalophora columbia gloveri, Beaver Mountain, 10 miles south of Baker City, eastern Oregon,
6700 feet, May 28, 2009, courtesy of Jerry Culley.

ECLOSION, SCENTING AND MATING:

This species mates readily in captivity, even in small cages. The female extends a scent gland from her abdomen to attract males. Pairings occur at night but I have had captive matings after dawn. This species remains active even at relatively low temperatures (high 30s).

Harold Teising provides the following image of a Hyalophora columbia gloveri female that spent two winters in cocoon stage. I often get reports of both Hyalophora columbia gloveri and Hyalophora euryalus pupae spending two or more years in cocoons.

If you have cocoons of either of those species which fail to produce moths after a one winter diapause, don't give up on them if they have good weight.

Hyalophora columbia gloveri female, two years in cocoon,
courtesy of Harold Teising.

Norman Smith writes, "I had bought some cocoons of H. gloveri from a gentleman in Sandy, Utah (he has since passed away). They began to emerge in spring in Fresno, California. I had a female emerge, a large, nearly purple colored specimen, indicative of that population in Sandy, but no male to mate her with. I placed her in an envelope in my refrigerator in hopes that a final unhatched cocoon would be male and I could mate them when he finally emerged. It took nearly three weeks for that last cocoon to emerge. It was a male, and believe it or not, when I took the female out of the refrigerator and she warmed up, she had no trouble holding on to the cage and called that night. A successful mating occurred and the ova were fertile. I had never had a moth in the refrigerator that long be successful at mating. I assumed that the cold temperatures that she was used to from her native locality allowed her to withstand my refrigerator for that period of time. You could almost imagine her back in Utah, weathering a cold, late season storm and still being able to mate when it warmed up. These moths are tougher than you think they are."

In Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia, one year, a captive female H. c. gloveri from western Canada called in over fifty wild male H. columbia columbia with the males beginning to report around 4:30 am.

Bill and Jake McEwen report a male responding to a calling female around 4:00 am, June 21, at high elevation (Eagle, Colorado, 6600 feet) and temperatures in high 30's.

Hyalophora columbia gloveri female, Alberta, aberration, no forewing cell markings,
June 2006, courtesy of Derek Bridgehouse.

Hyalophora columbia gloveri female, Alberta, courtesy of Derek Bridgehouse.

EGGS, LARVAE, COCOONS AND PUPAE:

Eggs are large and cream-coloured with brown and/or chestnut "glue" markings. Shape is of a flattened oval with an indentation on the side. Larvae are black and gregarious in the first instar. Larvae become more solitary as they progress. In Arizona, cocoons can be found in the wild as they are quite large and remain longitudinally attached to branches after leaf fall (Scott Smith). Patrick White offers the following observation for Montana gloveri: "Cocoons are nearly impossible to find in the wild. Larvae rarely, if ever attach cocoons to host plant, but spin cocoons in the grasses and debris below their host or nearby. Also, gloveri larvae are known to wander far from their food plant, spinning cocoons on the bases of large, solid objects such as buildings, rocks, or other plants."

Larvae look very much like cecropia and other species of the Hyalophora genus, but gloveri (5th instar) have three large pairs of yellow tubercles while columbia have three pairs of reddish orange tubercles and cecropia have but two pairs of red-orange thoracic tubercles. Euryalus larvae do not have the tiny black spicules emanating from the abdominal scoli, but instead have pointed scoli on the lower abdominal segments.

Photo courtesy of Scott Smith

Hyalophora columbia gloveri fifth instar, Arizona, courtesy of Harold M. Teising.

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.

Acer negundo Alnus Arctostaphylos patula Betula pendula Ceanothus cordulatus Ceanothus velutins Elaeagnus augustifolia..... Larix decidua Larix laricina Ligustrum Prunus demissa Prunus domestica Prunus emarginata Prunus serotina Prunus virginiana Pseudotsuga Purshia tridentata Ribes alpinum Ribes lacustre Ribes savitum Rosa Rhus trilobata Salix babylonica Salix discolor Salix exigua Shepherdia argentia Syringa vulgaris Ulmus

Box elder/Manitoba maple Alder Greenleaf manzita Silver birch Mountain white-thorn Snowbrush Russian olive European larch Tamarack Privet Western chokecherry Garden plum Bitter cherry Wild black cherry Chokecherry Douglas fir Antelope bitter brush Alpine currant Swamp currant Common currant Rose Skunk brush Weeping willow Pussy willow Sandbar willow Silver buffalo berry Common lilac Elm

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Matt Curtis writes (April 19), "I thought I’d just send you a quick field note on Hyalophera c. gloveri. A friend in Payson, Arizona, put out a trap with a female on March 25 about 6 miles out of Payson and attracted 86 males in one night. He went out of town for a trip and left his trap and cocoons with me to try out, and, sure enough, I put it out 9 miles west of Prescott on April 5 and attracted 52 males. On April 7 my wife and I went camping a couple of miles from the first location and used the female and lights to see what showed up. No saturnids showed until 2:45AM, then males arrived steadily until after sunrise, approximately 50. Temperatures were between 46-50F. This is the same area where I collected Hemileuca diana last October and found Hemileuca neumogeni egg rings in January. I sent a couple of photos last fall of this area. It is around 5450’ elevation in rolling hills covered with Cercocarpus, Q. turbinella and Q. emoryi, Rhus trilobata, Ceanothus greggii, acacia, and manzanita, with scattered pinyon pine-juniper."

Some Flight Times and Other Observations for Wild Silk Moths near Eagle, Colorado
Recorded by Bill and Jake McEwen

Hyalophora gloveri
On 8/7/2007 we found four caterpillars on sandbar willow at 6,800’ elevation along Gypsum Creek 7 miles southwest of Eagle, Colorado. We reared these until they spun cocoons in late August. We overwintered them in the refrigerator. We put them in an emergence cage in early May. Two males emerged on 6/18/2008, a third male emerged on 6/19/08. One large female was the last to emerge on 6/20/2008. We placed the female outside in a bird cage in our backyard in Eagle at 6,600’ elevation. We checked on her at 4:00 a.m. 6/21/2008, and she was scenting. At 4:05 a.m. a large wild male appeared and darted back and forth at a high speed. After 25 minutes he zeroed in on the cage, was captured and placed inside. The temperature was in the upper 30’s. They paired and stayed that way until separated that evening. The female deposited approximately 300 eggs.

On 6/19/2008 we captured a female at lights in Eagle. She deposited 230 eggs over the course of three nights. We reared approximately 200 caterpillars to cocoons. We had good success on sandbar willow and chokecherry, very limited success on apple and total failure on box elder and elm.

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