The caterpillar of Rothschildia vanschaycki (Lepidoptera, Saturniidae), a little known silk moth from Trinidad, W.I.

Abstract

On 9 March 2018, one of us (DSH) found and photographed a large, strikingly colourful caterpillar (Fig. 1) at Guapo Beach, near Point Fortin (approximately 10.19N, 61.67W), on a species of mangrove growing on land. The size and arrangement of spined scoli indicate that it is a species of Saturniidae. Comparison of the image with published images of Saturniidae caterpillars (e.g. Lampe 2010, Janzen & Hallwachs 2018) showed that Rothschildia is the only genus from Trinidad which shows this  configuration of short-spined, small subdorsal, dorsolateral and lateral scoli on all thoracic and abdominal segments.