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 63 R. erycina adult DHJanzen100656.jpg high resolution
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Compare this newly eclosed Rothschildia erycina with the adult Rothschildia lebeau in image DHJanzen100596.jpg above. It has the same moldy leaf pattern and the same windows in the wings, but the wing tips are greatly exaggerated. It is not clear whether to view it as a small Rothschildia lebeau with evolutionarily exaggerated wing tips, or a Rothschildia lebeau that evolutionarily shrunk all of its wings except the tips. Whichever the case, it has the most elongate front wings of all species of Rothschildia. Not only is Rothschildia erycina a very small Rothschilida (half or less of the body weight of R. lebeau), but it has the strange behavior of calling males just at dawn and so much so that the males may be seen flying around the calling female in what appears to be nearly full daylight - hardly a cryptic event. Associated with this, the males almost never come to lights, though females occasionally do as they oviposit in the dark as do all other Rothschildia females. |
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