Help identifying Rothschildia

[zakvanloocke]

Does anyone know which Rothschildia species this is?
7500m above sea level, Aguas Verde, Dep. Amazonas, Peru
Thank you!

~Zak Van Loocke

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[zakvanloocke]

I don't think this is R. jacobaeae because there is only one subapical spot on the forewings. It kind of looks like there are two on the right forewing but that is just the lighting. But in actuality, there is only the one.

~Zak Van Loocke

[oehlkew]

Zak,
It looks most like Rothschildia aricia aricia. I suspect the elevation is incorrect.
Perhaps you meant to record 7500 feet and not 7500 meters or perhaps the source of the specimen made that recording error; or maybe 750m, or 2500m with the 2 looking like a 7.
An appearance of aricia in northern Peru would represent a significant southern range extension, but not one that would be unreasonable as subspecies aricia xanthina is known from Peru
while aricia aricia is so far only reported from Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador.
In 2010 Brechlin and Meister described another subspecies: aricia napoecuadoriana. I have not seen images of that subspecies, but it is probably very close to aricia aricia in appearance and may represent the aricia on the eastern slopes of the Andes while aricia aricia may be confined to the western slopes. My best guess would be aricia napoecuadoriana, even though I have never seen that subspecies, nor have I read a published description.

Can you provide the wingspan and see if there is a possible recording error regarding altitude.

You are correct that it is not jacobaeae.

Bill Oehlke

[zakvanloocke]

Bill,
I have two specimens of this Rothschildia. They are 140 and 145 mm respectively. And I re-read the triangles the specimens came in and it looks like its more likely that it's 1500m rather than 7500m. Thank you for the id help! : )

~Zak

[oehlkew]

Thanks Zak,
Wingspans are in line with what would be expected of aricia. The 1500m elevation is also appropriate. Can you send me larger and better quality jpg images, that would be credited to you, for posting on WLSS, as I would like to post images to document the presence in northern Peru: Amazonas: Aguas Verde.
I suspect there are quite a few additional Saturniidae species that are not documented from this area as I do not think much documented collecting has been done there, probably until recently.

It is probably subspecies napoecuadoriana, but I am not sure. I am also not confident the designation of subspecies napoecuadoriana will stand the test of time. Perhaps it will. I believe the new designation came about as a result of DNA barcoding analysis, and there may yet be some revisions as to allowable threshholds of difference between species and subspecies in such analyses.

Bill Oehlke