DISTRIBUTION:

Periphoba hidalgensis (wingspan: males: 85mm; females: // forewing length: males: 46mm; females: probably larger) flies in
Mexico: Hidalgo, and possibly?? in Guerrero and other Mexican states; at elevations near 1500m.

Visit Identification Aides: Periphoba chart; Mexico and Central America.

The lone image of the male shows a moth with considerable contrast in the wings. The yellow antennae are quite long at 15mm. The dark brown am and pm lines on the forewing are thin and are heavily bordered internally with white. The slightly s-shaped pm line also has a thin white tracing externally.

The upper forty percent of the forewing marginal area ranges from dark brown to black and then turns greyish-brown for the lower sixty percent.

The median field is dark brown becoming a bit lighter toward the inner margin.

The subterminal line is dark brown and quite evident except in its upper reaches where it is almost vestigial. The internal submarginal field has light brown to golden brown suffusions, especially evident in the two largest outward projections below the costa and in the two longest outward projections below the cell.

The greyish basal area appears to have a dark dash in it, running parallel to the inner margin near the middle of the basal field.

The forewing cell mark is a small black dot, underscored with a smaller white dot, and capped with an elongate white streak that angles strongly (almost 90 degrees) toward the body from the line of the lower black and white dots. It is the shape of the cell mark that most influenced me in determining the female further down on this page. Perhaps this is an anomaly in the single known specimen; perhaps it is a determining character.

The following image of a male, sent to me as Periphoba arcaei is a very good match for hidalgensis, except for the orientation of the white upper portion of the forewing cell streak, and the very straight lower line of the pm line. It does seem to show much more white and much more contrast than I would expect in P. arcaei, but it is probably just a heavily marked arcaei.

Periphoba arcaei male, Guerrero, Mexico, courtesy of Kirby Wolfe.

FLIGHT TIMES AND PREFERRED FOOD PLANTS:

A single specimen has been recorded from Hidalgo in June. There are probably additional flight months. Periphoba hidalgensis larval hosts are unknown.

Periphoba hidalgensis female, Mexico, courtesy of Eric van Schayck,
very tentative id by Bill Oehlke.

As of 2011 the female of Periphoba hidalgensis is unknown. Thus the identification (above) with no data other than Mexico is very tentative. I have simply ruled out albata, rosacea and unicolor whose females I would expect to be much lighter in colour, and I have ruled out arcaei due to more white on forewing lines, larger cell markings and a different shape to hindwing. All or some of those assumptions may be incorrect. Bill Oehlke.

ECLOSION, SCENTING AND MATING:

Males use well-developed antennae to seek out females which probably scent at night.

EGGS, LARVAE, COCOONS, AND PUPAE:

Eggs are laid in clusters and larvae, which have urticating spines, feed gregariously.

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.

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.

I do not know the source of the genus name "Periphoba" chosen by Hubner in 1820.

The species name "hidalgensis" is indicative of a specimen type location, Hidalgo, Mexico.

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