C. regalis in eastern Mass. Again

[Pierre A Plauzoles]

Mothman617 wrote:

> Citheronia regalis (Royal Walnut Moth) has reared its ugly head (No pun
> intended) again here in Essex County, Massachusetts. I found an adult male
> at my blacklight on the morning of Jul 14th. Today I found at least a dozen
> 2nd instar larvae of this upon a Sweet Gum Tree (L. styraciflua) in
> Topsfield, Mass. Last year I had encountered a few adult moths, also while
> blacklighting. Prior to 1999 I had not seen the moth in this area since
> 1982/1983. I am curious to find out if there have been any recent sightings
> by anyone else in the northeast. I will post photos of the larvae when they
> are a bit larger.

Thanks for the encouraging news.  There is so much light out there that many
species' normal life cycles are being severely impacted.  Several species of
saturniids (the royal walnut moth is one of the saturniids) are among the more
seriously affected.

While I may agree that some of the caterpillars we find out there are pretty
"ugly", what some people do to avoid having them around is several orders of
magnitude worse than "ugly".  Thanks for appreciating them.

Pierre A Plauzoles
sphinxangelorum at bigfoot.com

PS: A good close-up shot of the hatchling or slightly older caterpillar would
be useful in identication of the early-instar caterpillars.  Many species are
not well documented at all.