All images © 2010-2021 Ana Carolina da Fonte (Masseran).
Location: Recife-PE, Brazil.
Dirphia avia (Stoll, 1780)
Taxonomy
Animals Kingdom Animalia
Arthropods Phylum Arthropoda
Hexapods Subphylum Hexapoda
Insetos Class Insecta
Winged and Once-winged Insects Subclass Pterygota
Butterflies and Moths Order Lepidoptera
Hawk, Sphinx, Silk, Emperor, and Allied Moths Superfamily Bombycoidea
Emperor, Royal, Moon, and Giant Silk Moths Family Saturniidae
Buck and Io Moths Subfamily Hemileucinae
Tribe Hemileucini
Genus Dirphia
Dirphia avia
Dirphia Avia's Life Adventure Journal
Insects daily visit is a natural thing here at my house. Some moths decide they want to spend the last few days of their lives inside, and I am okay with that. What I wasn't expecting was for one of them to lay eggs on my living room's door frame. But this is how this whole story happened. I had just arrived home from work and while talking to my daughter in the living room, and walking around, she noticed I had kicked something buy accident. We saw this tiny fuzzy black caterpillar. We had never seen baby ones, so we had no idea what that could be. I thought I probably brought it with me by accident stuck on my jeans. Until we started looking around the floor and found a few more. Since we were actually raising our first caterpillar that I found eating mu plant on my porch, we kind of had already researched a lot about them and how they have a better chance of surviving if kept indoors, etc... We started collecting them inside a container, a lot of them were already dying or already dead, we had no idea how long they were walking around my living room. My found the eggs later on the door frame and some more on the other side. Desperately started researching what type of caterpillar it could be, so we could find out what are their host plants. Also, because we had researched and got in touch with a few specialists in the field, one of them helped us to get kind of an idea what type of moth it could be and what we should do with them. We collected as many types of leaves around our yard and had them decide what types they would eat. They only ate cocoa leaves and ficus (their preference), so we kept feeding them ficus. At first, we thought they were Amastus, due to the red head and black bodies, plus the preference for the food. Back then, I had no clue on how much the caterpillar change throughout their lives! A week later they had their first change of skin (first instar) and when they came out their spikes were really white and their body really pink. I don't remember exactly when we found out we were dealing with Dirphia Avia. For coincidence, I still had their mama's body, since it was one of the bigger, fuzzy and pretty moth I had ever seen in person, and she did spend quite a lot of time with us, I kinda got attached to her. Sorry, I am weird, and I keep interesting bugs that I find dead. I never forget the day they hatched cause it was just a few days after my birthday and the day of my prandfather.
These are photos of momma Dirphia Avia, the day she came in she stayed on my fridge door and she looked pretty beat up. It was raining a lot and I though she would leave next day. My doors are always open so she could leave whenever she was ready.
(June 17th 2020)
This next photo is the momma's remaining body I took a picture to show the person that helped us through this process.
These are their eggs my daughter found later.
These next photos were right after we finished scavenging throughout the house. Hence, why there are paper still inside, which was what we used to pick them up.
(July 10th 2020) First Instar - Newborn
Experimenting with different types of leaves...
(July 10th 2020) First Instar - Newborn
Next photos show the leaf they chose to eat, which is a ficus leaf.
(July 11th 2020) First Instar - Newborn
(July 12th 2020)
Eating ficus and cocoa leaf.
The larvas lined up getting ready for their first change of skin. Their head skin is the first sign, it happens about 24 hrs before the change happens. They also stop eating and stay still most of the time until then. YOu can also tell its getting close cause their skin looks really streched and they get too puffy or fat for that skin.
(July 17th 2020)
In their first skin change they were giving hint of what they would actually look like once they were older, though after they do dry out they become a little darker again. Interesting facts are that they'll eat their own skin once they are done with, what I like to call caterpillar dance (while they are drying out they roll around). They, or another caterpillar, will pick up their head cap and throw it off the leaf. They also do that with their own feces throughout their larva phase. It is very cute cause it looks like they are actually playing ball.
(July 18th 2020) Second instar
(July 21st 2020) Second instar
(July 21st 2020) Third instar
(July 31st 2020) Fourth instar
(August 16th 2020)
(August 17th 2020) Fith instar
(August 17th 2020) Fith instar
(August 18th 2020) Fith instar
(August 27th 2020) Pre-Pupa
(August 27th 2020) Pre-Pupa Caterpillar Poop
Pre-pupa stage, you have to separate them. THeyll empty out their intestines also. Theyll will march around for a long time. Once they are ready they-ll start threading webs and gather leaves, twigs and stuff to make their cocoon.
I numbered them by order of who was pupating first. Even though some started first, they didnt actually follow the order of turning into pupa.
(August 30th 2020) Pre-Pupa Caterpillar
They curl up in a concave position.
September 6th 2020
#1 First Moth out of Pupa - October 6th 2020 - Female (same as momma)
#1 First Moth out of Pupa - October 6th 2020 - Female (same as momma)
#2 Second Moth out of Pupa - October 6th 2020 - Male (different than momma)
#2 Second Moth out of Pupa - October 6th 2020 - Male (different than momma)
#2 Second Moth out of Pupa - October 6th 2020 - Male (different than momma)
#3 Third Moth out of Pupa - October 8
#3 Third Moth out of Pupa - October 8
#3 Third Moth out of Pupa - October 8
#3 Third Moth out of Pupa - October 8
So there was a huge difference in behavior after each moth came out of the pupa. Male Moths came out when there was no one around and flew out as soon as possible. The females stayed. One of them put their sexual organ out inside my laundry room and kept flapping her wings. My laundry room is open with no windows. Next day she did the same thing hanging on the wall outside.
#1 First Moth out of Pupa - October 6th 2020 - Female (same as momma)
#1 First Moth out of Pupa - October 6th 2020 - Female (same as momma)
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