Page 354 - The Book of Caterpillars: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species From Around the World

MOTH CATERPILLARS

FAMILY Brahmaeidae
DISTRIBUTION
DIS TRIBUTION Russian Far East, Mongolia, China, and Korean peninsula
DISTRIBUTION
A
HABITAT T Forests and woodlands
HABITAT
HABIT
HOST PLANTS
HOST PLANTS
HOS T PLANT S Privet (Ligustrum spp.), ash (Fraxinus spp.), and lilac (Syringa spp.)
NO
NOTE Spectacularly tentacled caterpillar
NOTE
TE
CONSERVATION STATUS
CONSERV A TION S T A TUS Not evaluated
CONSERVATION STATUS
ADULT WINGSPAN
4⅝–6 in (120–150 mm)
CATERPILLAR LENGTH
2¾–3⅛ in (70–80 mm)
BRAHMAEA CERTHIA
SINO-KOREAN OWL MOTH
352
(FABRICIUS, 1793)

Sino-Korean Owl Moth caterpillars emerge from large, creamy-
white spherical eggs laid in clusters on host plant stems and
trunks some seven to ten days earlier. First instar caterpillars,
already with tentacles, hatch by eating a hole through the
eggshell. The larvae grow rapidly, eating leaves from the edges
and consuming a great amount of vegetation; they take less than
three weeks to complete their development. The caterpillars

are gregarious at rst but then become solitary. Final instars
lose their tentacles and head toward the ground, where they

The Sino-Korean Owl Moth caterpillar is pupate in an earthen cell. The pupa is dark brown to black
black dorsally with black tentacles and spines. and overwinters.
Laterally, each segment is light orangey brown
tending to white anteriorly. The prolegs and true
legs are black. The head is black and white and
appears skull-like viewed from the front. Adult moths emerge in spring and are nocturnal, mostly active
during the rst part of the night. They live only a week or two

and are well camou aged when resting by day on tree trunks.

Brahmaea certhia is the type species of the genus Brahmaea, that
is the species on which the genus is based; the Brahmaeidae was
only separated from the Bombycidae family in the early 1990s.

Actual size