One of the most distinctive lepidoptera insects in Asia, actias, Chinese known as the large tailed silkworm moth. High-value long-tail gathering place.
When I was very young, I went to the bookstore, and I liked to go into the science bookshelf to see the pictures of various animals and plants, and one of the books listed the butterflies and moths that were green and green all over the world, that is, from that time on, I learned that there was actually such a large moth with a long flowing tail, and the name of the long-tailed water moth has been rooted in my mind for a long time since then.
Partial watercolor hand-drawn of the tailed silkworm moth of the world Lepidoptera
With the accumulation of knowledge, I gradually realized that the "long-tailed aqueous moth" is contained in a large genus called Actias, and at the same time, the large silkworm moth with a long tail also has the African Argama and Eudaemonia series, the European endemic Graellsia and the South American Titaea genus, etc. Today we only talk about the actias genus, that is, the tailed silkworm moth / tailed silkworm moth genus.
------ Lepidoptera
------ The Great Silkworm Moth Family Saturniidae
-------tailed large silkworm moth genus Actias
The genus is currently known to about 38 species in the world, distributed in Asia and North America, and its size is also the ultimate among insects. The 18th and 20th centuries were an era of rapid naturalism, as more and more areas of Asia were explored, this strange-looking, huge lepidopteran insect attracted the attention of countless scholars, and also began to circulate as a luxurious collection among the European nobility, and to this day many artistic and literary works can still get inspiration from such large moths; and many regions still believe that this moth, especially the enchanting eye spots on the wings, is a strange symbol. Children who fall alone at night encounter this insect in the wild and will be hooked, or open the "yin and yang eyes"... China is the distribution of the tailed silkworm moth in the hardest hit area, there are more than ten known species, except for the northwest of the rest of the region are distributed, especially in the southwest and south China is the most abundant, and the most well-known of them is the green-tailed silkworm moth, which is also the first kind of tailed silkworm moth I have seen. However, one of the favorite things that goose insects do is to evolve many similar species that need to be found in the stubble, so in the case of the "green-tailed silkworm moth" that many people have seen, it actually contains a lot of different things.
A large tailed silkworm moth craft, a pendant made with A.luna wings
Actias selene (Hübner, 1806)
Hand-drawn picture of the green-tailed silkworm moth
Male individuals of the green-tailed silkworm moth in Kunming
A specimen of the nominate subspecies of the green-tailed silkworm moth collected in Banna
The model species of the genus Tailed Silkworm Moth may not actually be seen by many people. The type of origin of this species is in northeastern India, extending eastward to Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Tibet, Yunnan, except for the northern , northeastern & eastern regions , and southern Guangxi. Therefore, the "green-tailed silkworm moth" outside the southwest region in China is actually not a Buddha-figure. So the question is, what are the green long-tailed moths smashing in other places? ↓
Actias ningpoana (Fielder, 1862)
Ningbo tail silkworm moth photographed by Teacher Sandiji in Shenzhen
The most widely distributed species of the tailed silkworm moth in China, originally existed as a subspecies of the green-tailed silkworm moth for a long time, J. Yella et al. (2005) promoted it to an independent species through anatomical and molecular means, and from the distribution pattern point of view, there is no overlap between it and the green tail, and it is much wider than the distribution of the latter, from the northeast to Hainan and Taiwan can be seen; due to the larvae diversity (such as maple incense, willow tree, beech, camphor tree, etc.), adult insects can often be encountered in cities with a good degree of greening. From time to time, there are media reports that enthusiastic citizens have witnessed this long green tail with four eyes on the wings of the venomous bite that has never been seen before and touched a blistering moth. Incidentally, the adult mouth organs of the genus Tailed Silkworm Moth are basically not fed, and all the energy required for adult activity has been accumulated in the larval stage.
The Ningbo tailed silkworm moth collected by the author in Chongqing
So the question is, how to distinguish between green tail and Ningbo tail? In addition to the geographical distribution, the green tail wing type is very sharp in appearance and morphology, and the curvature of the tail process is much smoother than that of the Ningbo tail; the color of the eye spots on the wings, the pinkish purple of the green tail, and the pinkish yellow of the Ningbo tail.
Comparing the above two specimen diagrams, I believe it is not difficult to see the clues
Actias sinensis (Walker, 1855)
Male large silkworm moth
Female large silkworm moth
In addition to the most common green ningbo tail silkworm moth, the yellow type is the most common huawei silkworm moth, mainly distributed in central China, east China, south China, Hainan and Taiwan. It is worth mentioning that the female and male are completely different, the body is more fat and the whole body is light green. The Huawei Silkworm Moth and the previous Yellow-tailed Silkworm Moth are actually the same thing, and the latter has now been treated as a synonym for the former. Huawei actually looks at first glance, and there is indeed a feeling of a leopard silkworm moth with an elongated tail [fog]
Actias dubernardi (Oberthür, 1897)
The male long-tailed silkworm moth is beautiful and beautiful
Female long-tailed silkworm moth, collected in Guangxi
Also a relatively common domestic Actias genus, as the name suggests its tail length far exceeds the above, and the color is still enchanting pink + apricot yellow, just imagine one morning in the autumn of South China, open the door and suddenly see such a special object lying in the yard, it must be very surprising; in the 19th century European insect market, the specimen of a complete long-tailed silkworm moth is quite expensive. Like the above-mentioned Large Silkworm Moth, the long-tailed Silkworm Moth is also a hermaphroditic heteromorphroditic, the female is greener and the tail is thicker, and the female tailed silkworm moth is also relatively rare compared to the male. Because the tail is too long, most of the individuals seen in the wild by the long-tailed silkworm moth will have a broken tail protrusion... But it still doesn't affect how amazing it is.
Actias artemis (Bremer & Gray, 1853)
Ecology of the short-tailed large silkworm moth
Amphoteric specimen of the short-tailed silkworm moth, collected in the northeast
There is a long tail, and it is logical that there must be a short tail... Relative to the above several, the exposure rate of the short tail is much less, a large reason is that it is mainly distributed in the north of the species, the country is only visible in the northeast, foreign distribution in Japan and Russia; as a large insect living in cold areas, only one generation a year and the size of the adult is relatively small, especially the female tail process is completely a small piece of the hindwing protruding, but it seems that there is indeed a sense of fan cuteness [enough]
Angel-tailed silkworm moth Actias chapaeMell, 1950
The name of the Immortal Moth is true
The length of the tail of the angel-tailed silkworm moth can be seen from this, occupying a large part of the specimen box
Unique in the entire genus Actias, the tail length is the longest in the genus, and a closer look reveals that the elongated version of the green-tailed silkworm moth (laughs) body is also a rare species in the wild, and is only distributed in South China, Southwest China and Hainan. This category is also my favorite species of Actias, and no matter how you look at it, there is a kind of beauty of immortality...
Actias maenas (Doubleday, 1847)
Male ecology of the large-tailed silkworm moth
On the left is the large-tailed female, very fat
The largest species in the genus of tailed silkworm moths in China has a distribution, with a wingspan of up to 120 mm, and it is also the southmost species. In May and June, on the mountain road of Xishuangbanna or Gaoligong Mountain, you may be able to see this huge yellow-brown long-tailed moth that stops at the leaves to rest on the side of the road; this species is also a hermaphroditic species, the female insect is relatively rare, the body is fat and the wings are getting larger, and the flight is worrying about whether it will suddenly fall to the ground...
Actias luna (Linnaeus, 1758)
Actias luna photographed by Worm in North America
A North American Actias luna specimen from the Worms Collection
The taxonomic patriarch Linnaeus personally named the species, and was the first species in the genus Actias to be named. In many literary works, the genus is referred to as the "Luna Moth", but in fact the name should be unique to this species, because its Latin name luna originally meant the moon goddess in ancient Roman mythology. This species is only distributed in North America, equivalent to the "green-tailed silkworm moth" in the United States, and the overall morphology is more rounded than that of relatives in Asia.
In addition to the large tailed silkworm moth described above, I will share some of the remaining species~
Actias angulocaudata (Naumann & Bouyer, 1998), very similar to the Chinese-tailed silkworm moth A. sinensis, is distributed only in the Sichuan-Shaanxi region.
Specimen of the curved-tailed silkworm moth, collected in Sichuan
Gongga-tailed silkworm moth Actias kongjiara (Chu & Wang, 1993), a small green-tailed large silkworm moth, is also distributed only in the Sichuan-Shaanxi region.
A specimen of the Gonggawei silkworm moth, collected in Shaanxi
Actias neidhoeferi (Ong & Yu, 1968) is an endemic species distributed only in the high-altitude areas of Taiwan, where the larvae feed on pines and are also known in Taiwan as the Hee Shui Cyan Moth.
Life history of the Taiwanese tailed silkworm moth
The red-tailed silkworm moth Actias rhodopneuma (Roeber, 1925), a very eye-catching species, is very close to the color matching of the long-tailed silkworm moth, but the tail length is not as long as the former, and is only distributed in southwest China and the Indochina Peninsula. Hermaphroditic heteromorphic, the female insect is similar to the green-tailed silkworm moth.
Male specimen of the red-tailed silkworm moth, collected by the author in Xishuangbanna
Female specimen of the red-tailed silkworm moth, image from Wikipedia
The author also saw this species in eastern Yunnan, where there are a variety of tailed silkworm moths mixed
The giant-tailed silkworm moth Actias rhodopneuma (Roeber, 1925), an Actias species found only in Sulawesi, is the most marginal species in Asia, with a dark brown body and a very unpretentious Latin name, also a hermaphroditic.
Sulawesi is an endemic species with a rather unique temperament
A sexual specimen of the giant-tailed silkworm moth
Most species of the genus Are environmentally demanding, and with the intensification of environmental damage in recent years, many species are less likely to be seen. Since many species in the genus Actias are quite critical of small habitats, there are certainly undiscovered species that will need to be further investigated later... This text also wants to mention a few similar genera, but it has been so long and the Actias genus is the author's favorite group of high-value moths, so let's stop here
Over the years, I have collected and collected some species of the genus Actias, which are only used for scientific purposes
In the end, I still can't help but take a picture of my own real photo of Amway 's green tail [crossed out] the pendant of the big silkworm moth, which is really beautiful... If you like this kind of moth, you will also like the surroundings associated with it