''Citheronia splendens'', the splendid royal moth, is a

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

of the family

Saturniidae Saturniidae, members of which are commonly named the saturniids, is a family of Lepidoptera with an estimated 2,300 described species. The family contains some of the largest species of moths in the world. Notable members include the emperor m ...

. It is found from southern

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

south into central and south-eastern

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. The species was first described by

Herbert Druce Herbert Druce, Linnean Society, FLS (14 July 1846 in London – 11 April 1913 in London) was an English entomologist. His collections were acquired by Frederick DuCane Godman (1834–1919), Osbert Salvin (1835–1898), and James John Joicey (187 ...

in 1886. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

is . Adults are on wing from July to August.

Life cycle

Females lay eggs in groups of 1 to 4 on sides of a

plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...

s leaves. The

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder ...

s look like bird droppings and spend majority of their life cycle on leaves, feeding on them in the evening. When the caterpillars mature they start feeding during the day as well by eating leaf petioles or

stem Stem or STEM most commonly refers to: * Plant stem, a structural axis of a vascular plant * Stem group * Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Stem or STEM can also refer to: Language and writing * Word stem, part of a word respon ...

s. Their hosts are typically '' Gossypium thurberi'', '' Rhus trilobata'', '' Arctostaphylos pungens'' and '' Rhus choriophylla''. In September, they burrow underground where they enter into their

pupa A pupa (; : pupae) is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their life cycle, the stages th ...

stage. When pupa stage is done, the species turn into a moth.

Subspecies

*''Citheronia splendens splendens'' (Jalisco, México, Guerrero and Chiapas) *''Citheronia splendens sinaloensis'' Hoffmann, 1942 (central and northwestern Mexico, south-eastern Arizona) *''Citheronia splendens queretana'' Vázquez-G., 1944 (Mexico)

References

Ceratocampinae Moths described in 1886 {{Saturniidae-stub