THE PROMETHEA MOTH
CALLOSAMIA PROMETHEA (DRURY, 1773)

Moth image (female-left; male-right) composited by Bill Oehlke

This site has been created by Bill Oehlke at oehlkew@islandtelecom.com
Comments, suggestions and/or additional information are welcomed by Bill.

TAXONOMY: Superfamily: Bombycoidea, Latreille, 1802 Family: Saturniidae, Boisduval, [1837] 1834 Subfamily: Saturniinae, Boisduval, [1837] 1834 Tribe: Attacini Genus: Callosamia, Packard, 1864

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DISTRIBUTON:

The Callosamia promethea moth is found in the southern extremities of Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick in Canada, and in the eastern half of the U.S. from latitudes of middle Maine to middle Florida.

FLIGHT TIMES AND PREFERRED FOOD PLANTS:

North of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois Callosamia promethea populations are univoltine with moths on the wing from May to mid July. In the southern half of its range, promethea is bivoltine with winter diapause stock emerging from March to May, with the second brood emerging in August.
Although univotine in the north, promethea exhibit a bimodal emergence pattern, with some of the winter diapause stock exhibiting an eclosion peak about three weeks before a second peak.

ECLOSION, SCENTING AND MATING:

Adult Callosamia promethea moths emerge from cocoons tightly fastened by a peduncle to tree branches in the morning hours.

The moth has little difficulty pushing through the narrow valve at the top of the cocoon and will hang from the cocoon or a tree branch to "inflate" its wings.

This species is dimorphic with the female being brownish in spring broods and reddish in summer broods. The male promethea is usually black although males sometime show a reddish hue.

I once heard a woman tell my father that he had the sexiest backyard in New Jersey. She was responding to his explanation of the swarms of male promethea flying around a backyard cage holding a scenting female. Unlike most other saturniidae females which begin scenting after dusk, female promethea scent from 4:00-6:30 pm, and the day-flying males have a flying ability of over twenty miles per day. This species mates readily, even in small cages. The pair usually remains coupled until the following evening.

OVA, LARVAE, COCOONS, AND PUPAE:

Relatively small, white ova are laid in short rows of four to seven eggs. Incubation is eight to twelve days.

The caterpillars are striped around the girth and are gregarious for the first two instars. The coloration changes dramatically for the last three instars with the body losing its stripes and developing bright red or orange thoracic tubercles and a yellow caudal tubercle.

Photo courtesy Univ. Kentucky.

The pupa is a dark brown and almost completely fills the tightly woven inner cocoon.

Wild promethea cocoons are often found hanging from hostplants after leaf drop as the larvae always spin a strong peduncle that allows the long, slender cocoon to hang from the tree like a Christmas ornament. Wild cocoons suffer a high parasitization rate. Photo by Dan MacKinnon

Larval Food Plants

Listed below are 1)the primary caterpillar food plant(s) used by myself on Prince Edward Island (listed first), and 2) preferred and alternate food plants listed in Stephen E. Stone's "Foodplants of World Saturniidae". It is hoped that this alphabetical listing followed by the common name of the foodplant will prove useful. The list is not exhaustive. Experimenting with closely related foodplants is worthwhile. Starred items are successfully used by my father, Don Oehlke, in New Jersey.

Prunus pensylvanica Acer Berberis vulgaris Betula papyrifera Cephalanthus occidentalis...... Cinnamomum camphora Corylus Diospyros Fagus Fraxinus pensylvanica Gordonia lasianthus Halesia carolina Kalmia Laurus benzoin Ligustrum Liquidambar stryaciflua Liriodendron tulipifera Magnolia acuminata Magnolia virginiana Malus pumila Myrica pensylvanica Pinus Populus Prunus domestica Prunus persica Prunus serotiina Prunus virginiana Pyris communis Quercus Rhododendron Salix Sassifras albidum Styrax americana Symplocos carolina Syringa vulgaris Thuja occidentalis Tilia americana Tilia tinctoria Viburnum

Pin cherry Maple Common barberry White/Paper birch Buttonbush Camphor Hazel Persimmon Beech Green ash Loblolly-bay Wild olive Laurel Laurel/Sweetbay Privet weetgum Tuliptree/White poplar Cucumber tree Sweetbay Apple Northern bayberry Pine Poplar Gardenplum Peach Wild blackcherry Chokecherry* Pear Oak Rhododendron Willow Sassafras* American snowbell Sweetleaf Common lilac Northern red cedar American basswood Basswood Arrowwood

Visit other websites maintained by Bill Oehlke:

AFRICAN SATURNIIDAE Silkmoths
ARCTIIDAE Arctiids or Tiger Moths
ASIAN SATURNIIDAE
AUSTRALIAN SATURNIIDAE
CERATOCAMPINAE Regal Moths
EUROPEAN SATURNIIDAE
MEXICAN SATURNIIDAE
NORTH AMERICAN SATURNIIDAE
SOUTH/CENTRAL AMERICAN SATURNIIDAE
SATURNIIDAE OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND: rearing info.
SPHINGIDAE OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND Hawkmoths
BUTTERFLIES OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

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Google is one of my favourite Search Engines and seems to offer the most extensive listing of silkmoth sites. Use your back arrow to return to this site after using the Google search box to the left.

Google lists at least one site for each of the following Saturniidae genera: Actias, Adelocephala, Adeloneivaia, Adelowalkeria, Adetomeris, Agapema, Aglia, Anisota, Antheraea, Antherina, Antistathmoptera, Archaeoattacus, Argema, Arsenura, Athletes (need species), Attacus, Aurivillius, Automerella, Automerina, Automeris, Bunaea, Bunaeopsis, Caio (need species), Caligula (need species), Callosamia, Catocephala, Cinabra, Cirina (need species), Citheronia, Citioica, Coloradia, Copaxa, Copiopteryx, Coscinocera, Cricula, Decachorda, Dirphia, Dirphiopsis, Dryocampa, Dysdaemonia, Eacles, Eochroa, Epiphora, Eriogyna, Eubergia, Eudyaria, Eupackardia, Eustera, Gamelia, Gonimbrasia, Goodia, Graellsia, Gynanisa, Heliconisa, Hemileuca, Heniocha, Holocerina, Homoeopteryx, Hyalophora, Hylesia, Hyperchiria, Imbrasia, Ithomisa, Lemaireia, Leucanella, Lobobunaea, Loepa, Lonomia, Ludia, Melanocera, Micragone, Molippa, Neoris, Nudaurelia, Oiticella, Opodiphthera, Ormiscodes, Orthogonioptilium, Othorene, Paradirphia, Perisomena, Periphoba, Polythysana, Procitheronia, Pselaphelia, Pseudaphelia, Pseudantheraea, Pseudautomeris, Pseudimbrasia, Pseudobunaea, Pseudodirphia, Psilopygida, Ptiloscola, Rhescynthis, Rhodinia, Rohaniella, Rothschildia, Salassa (need species: lola), Samia, Saturnia, Schausiella, Syssphinx, Tagoropsis, Titaea, Urota, Usta (need species:terpsichore), Vegetia.