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Promethea Silkmoth

Callosamia promethea

Description:

Males have dark brownish-black wings with a faint white postmedian line and pinkish coloring near the apical spot. Females are bright reddish-pink or a brownish color with well-developed reniform spots. Both sexes have tanish marginal borders. Their wingspan measures 7.5-9.5 cm.

Habitat:

C. promethea is found in the eastern half of the United States and lower parts of eastern Canada.

Notes:

Mating takes place in the afternoon to early evening, and egg-laying begins at night. Females are attracted to lights, but males are not. Females lay 2-12 eggs in a singe cluster on host plants. The early instar larvae feed together on the underside of leaves. They are greenish yellow and striped with black. The older larvae are solitarty and are almost all green except for 4 red knobs above the thorax and 1 yellow knob on the eighth abdominal segment. On the lower branches of the food plant, the larva makes a cocoon within a leaf, firmly attaching the petiole to the branch. C. promethea has 1 brood in the north (which flies from June-July) and 2 or more broods in the south (which flies from March-May and again from July-August).

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7 Comments

Latimeria
Latimeria 12 years ago

Very interesting. Sounds like your mothlights were doing their job!

linefaberjohannesen
linefaberjohannesen 12 years ago

Yes, she was at my mothlights for several nights, actually even sitting there in the day. The first night I saw her she had just laid her eggs, and by the third night, that is when the picture where she is resting on my arm is taken. Normally we never see moths laying eggs at the lights, but this one did.

Latimeria
Latimeria 12 years ago

Amazing, you even captured it laying eggs. I think we can safely say this one's a female. In the second picture, is it resting on your arm?

linefaberjohannesen
linefaberjohannesen 12 years ago

Nej derfor føles det endnu mere spektakulært når man ser dem i virkeligheden :)

Aalestrup
Aalestrup 12 years ago

Meget flot sommerfugl. Ikke lige en vi møder i den Danske baghave :) .. øv

linefaberjohannesen
linefaberjohannesen 12 years ago

yes they really are amazing!

Ashish Nimkar
Ashish Nimkar 12 years ago

Beautiful

Kingston, Ontario, Canada

Spotted on Jun 14, 2011
Submitted on Jun 14, 2011

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