I'm still not sure this is Paradirphia leoni. It might also be Paradirphia frankae. Who knows these days? Since Brechlin & Meister raised havoc on most of the South American Saturnids, it has become impossible to separate the real species from the imagined ones, without being backed up by an entire lab. Figure it out yourself. This stock comes from Chiapas (Mexico). Leoni was originally described from Chiapas in 2010, but given the confusion with other Mexican members of the Paradirphia genus it's basically impossible to tell what the exact distribution is. The reason why I think this is leoni is because of the smaller size. The caterpillars were also smaller and more slender then for example P. semirosea (see my post of
August 17th 2016). They seem to have only one flight per year early summer (June/July).
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| Paradirphia leoni female - Origin: Mexico |
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| Paradirphia leoni male - Origin: Mexico |
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| Paradirphia leoni female - Origin: Mexico |