Page 386 - The Book of Caterpillars: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species From Around the World

MOTH CATERPILLARS

FAMILY Saturniidae
TRIBUTION
DIS
DISTRIBUTION Eastern Peru
DISTRIBUTION
HABITAT
HABITAT T High-altitude cloud forests
HABIT
A
HOST PLANTS
HOS
HOST PLANTS S Unknown; in captivity has fed on Laurel Sumac (Malosma laurina)
T PLANT
NO
NOTE Rare, high-altitude silkmoth caterpillar
TE
NOTE
CONSERVATION STATUS Not evaluated, but scarce
CONSERV
CONSERVATION STATUS
T
TION S
A
TUS
A
ADULT WINGSPAN
3–3⅞ in (75–98 mm)
CATERPILLAR LENGTH
2¾ in (70 mm)
CERODIRPHIA HARRISAE
CERODIRPHIA HARRISAE
384
LEMAIRE, 1975
The Cerodirphia harrisae silkmoth caterpillar is so rare that the
adult female has not yet been o cially described. Photographs

of its immature stages were obtained by rearing the eggs of the

rst known female captured in Peru. The newly hatched young
were creamy white and congregated in a tight group on the
leaf edge to feed, moving by turns to the freshly chewed edge.
The caterpillars completed six instars before crawling to the
ground to pupate under humid dead leaves wrapped with a few

The Cerodirphia harrisae caterpillar is pale silk threads.
pinkish cream with areas of scattered ligree.
The spiracles are large and white, bordered
with caramel. The body is decorated with blue, There are 33 species of Cerodirphia in Central and South
black-tipped spines studded with smaller yellow
or white spines. A pair of long, black spines America, with distributions ranging from hot, lowland rain
extends over the yellowish head. The prolegs forest to cold, high-altitude cloud forest. Many of the moths
are green and yellow, and the true legs are black.
are bright pink with a black-and-white banded abdomen. The
caterpillars are social and processional (searching for food in

single le) and belong to the silkmoth subfamily Hemileucinae,
whose members have stinging spines. Many species do not spin
silk or make cocoons.

Actual size