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Project Noah Nature School
Hemileuca sp. (possibly mania)
Fuzzy striped moth with orange antennae and abdomen. Close to 3 cm in length. The hind wings are pale. When disturbed, this moth curls up and falls to the ground, playing dead. It also exudes a dark fluid from the anus. The males have pectinate antennae, while those of the female are more filiform. The females also tend to have a more pale wing coloration. In the last picture, the moth is feigning death. Family Saturniidae.
Under a light on a stone wall. Semi-urban area on the outskirts of the city.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/86666094@N0... These are probably the eggs of this species, which deposit their eggs in rings around the twigs and branches of their host plant. http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/222.... H. tricolor photo sent from Ryan St. Laurent: https://www.flickr.com/photos/86666094@N....
Spotted on Feb 11, 2013
Submitted on Mar 19, 2013
4 Comments
So very interesting! I'll take pictures of this one every time I see one to build up a better species representation.
I did some more research. What you have here is a currently unplaceable species near to Hemileuca mania. Lemaire (2002) mentions that the "population [of Hemileuca near mania] from Chiapas, San Cristóbal de las Casas, which is tentatively associated with Hemileuca mania, is characterized by the much darker brown color of the male for wing, slightly brownish tinge of the hindwing..."
Lemaire goes on to mention that the females from this Chiapas population do not differ from topotypical H. mania, nor are there differences in the genitalia of either sex. He says there is too much uncertainty to officially name this entity.
So, this specimen represents a taxon near Hemileuca mania, which may be a distinct, unnamed species. The male you have photographed is an excellent match for the males figured in Lemaire from near the same locality. I will mention these to Bill Oehlke along with the female Coloradia casanovai.
Thank you Ryan. I didn't find any pictures of H. mania on the internet yet.
Not Hemileuca tricolor which is found farther north and has different coloration, particularly a curved AM line on the forewing. The AM and PM lines on this individual are nearly parallel and quite far apart (ruling out most species of the H. tricolor complex in Mexico). This may be H. mania. I will investigate this further.