I (William Oehlke) do not know if Saturnia pavonia ligurica and Saturnia pavoniella have been synonymized. I note, October 15, 2012, according to Tony Pittaway, that Saturnia pavonia ligurica and Saturnia pavonia meridionalis are both now treated as variants of Saturnia pavoniella.

Most of the information on this page is courtesy of Tony Pittaway.

All images on this page are courtesy of Mario Ioppolo,
Mario has indicated (February 2010) that his images on this page may well be of Saturnia pavoniella.

TAXONOMY: Superfamily: Bombycoidea, Latreille, 1802 Family: Saturniidae, Boisduval, [1837] 1834 Subfamily: Saturniinae, Boisduval, [1837] 1834 Tribe: Saturniini, Boisduval, [1837] 1834 Genus: Saturnia, Schrank, 1802

DISTRIBUTION:

Saturnia pavonia ligurica (wingspan 45-95 mm), flies in northern Portugal (Eduardo Marabuto), northern and central Spain, southern France, Italy, southeastern Europe, northern Turkey to the Caucasus Mountains.

FLIGHT TIMES AND PREFERRED FOOD PLANTS:

When spring is early, pavonia ligurica will be on the wing from late February to March.

Males are diurnal and females are nocturnal.

ECLOSION, SCENTING, AND MATING:

Saturnia pavonia ligurica female, fresh, courtesy of Jan Hellert.

Females emerge in the morning and extend a scent gland from the base of the abdomen to "call" in the more colorful males. Females continue scenting until near noon or until mating.

Many breeders are able to locate females by following the day-flying males to the source of attraction.

Females remain coupled with males until nightfall when they seperate, begin flight, and deposit their eggs.

EGGS, LARVAE, COCOONS AND PUPAE:

Grayish, medium-sized (1.4 x 2.2mm) eggs with olive-brown gum are deposited in neat clusters on the undersides of foodplant leaves or in rings of host plant twigs. Incubation lasts 10-14 days.

When the black, spiny larvae (2-3 mm) first emerge, they devour a portion of their eggshells before clustering. There is an orange line down each side which is quite pronounced in the second instar larva to the right.

As the larvae progress they begin to live more individual lives and change colour from black to green with yellow tubercles. Tufts of black spines emanate from raised protuberances on the body.

Larvae progress through six instars and the fifth instar larva to the right still has some growing to do.

In the final instar (67-88 mm) larvae are predominantly green but there can be varying degrees of black pigmentation with some larvae being almost completely black. This sixth instar larva has begun to spin among the branches of an apricot tree.

Sturdy, coarse, thin-walled, pear-shaped, double, unsealed brown valved cocoons are spun up among tree leaves. This freshly spun cocoon will shortly darken.

Pupae (20-25 mm)sometimes remain in diapause through two winters. The pupae are dark brown to black, noticeably dorso-ventrally flattened, and 'comma'-shaped.

Generally speaking, this is an easy moth to rear provided overcrowding is avoided.

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.

Larval Food Plants

Alnus Arbutus unedo Betula Calluna vulgaris Cornus Crataegus Erica Fagus Fragaria Fraxinus Hippophae rhamnoides Humulus Juglans Lythrum salicaria Myrica gale Pistacia terebinthus Potentilla Prunus domestica Prunus serotina Prunus spinosa Prunus virginiana Pyrus communis Pyrus malus Quercus Rosa Rubus idaeus Rumex Salix babylonica Sambucus Schinus terebinthifolius Sorbus Spiraea alba Ulmus Vaccinium myrtillus

Alder Strawberry madrone Birch Scottish heathers Dogwood Hawthorn Heath beech Strawberry Ash Sallow thorn Hops Walnut Loosestrife Sweetgale Cyprus/Terpentine Cinquefoil Garden plum Wild black cherry Blackthorn Choke cherry Pear Apple Oak Rose Wild red raspberry Sorrel weeping willow Elderberry Brazil peppertree Mountain ash Meadow spiraea Elm Thinleaf huckleberry

This moth has also been classified as follows:

meridionalis Calberla, 1887.
valcarceli Agenjo, 1970.
cosmicae Nadal, 1978
iberligurica Gómez Bustillo et al.

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