Page 429 - The Book of Caterpillars: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species From Around the World

MOTH CATERPILLARS

FAMILY Saturniidae
DISTRIBUTION United States (southeastern Texas), south to southern Peru
HABITAT Lower altitude tropical forests
HOST PLANTS Wide variety, including ash (Fraxinus spp.), willow (Salix spp.),
and Citrus spp.
NOTE Giant silkmoth whose cocoons were once used as rattles
CONSERVATION STATUS Not evaluated, but considered secure

ADULT WINGSPAN
4⅛–4⅝ in (105–120 mm)
CATERPILLAR LENGTH
3½ in (90 mm)
ROTHSCHILDIA LEBEAU
ROTHSCHILDIA LEBEAU 427

(GUÉRIN-MÉNEVILLE, 1868)

The Rothschildia lebeau caterpillar hatches from among a group
of white eggs and immediately eats the remaining eggshell.
Black with yellow spots at this stage, it groups together with its
siblings as they feed at the leaf edge. As the caterpillar grows
and molts through ve instars, its colors change each time, and

it moves away from its group. After about ve weeks it expels
its gut contents and spins a teardrop-shaped, hard, silvery
cocoon suspended by a stem of multiple threads fastened to
a tree branch.

The Rothschildia lebeau caterpillar is
There are 29 species of Rothschildia presently recognized, some green with a broad, white fore edge on most
segments of its body, which also has a row of
with quite colorful caterpillars. They are found only in the widely spaced, small, yellow tubercles tipped
Americas and the Caribbean, and distributed from lowland with short bristles on each segment. The head
is green, and the true legs are banded in black
tropical forests to high-altitude habitats in the Andes. Three and yellow. The abdominal legs are black
and yellow.
species have been recorded in the United States. In the past,
Native Americans made rattles with small rocks sewn into empty
Rothschildia cocoons. A window in each wing of Rothschildia
adults has elicited the name “four eyes” in Mexico.

Actual size