Between the years 2001 and 2002 four species of Saturniidae were added to the fauna of the Andaman Islands. Antheraea (Antheraea) insularis was raised from a subspecies to a full species (Brechlin & Kitching 2001) and three new species, A. (Antheraea) meisteri, A. (Antheraeopsis) rudloffi and A. (Antheraea) cernyi were described by Brechlin (2001). With these additions the total number of saturniids known from these islands rose from six to ten. While the pre-imagines and the larval food plants of six of these species were discovered and studied since the 1990s (Veenakumari et al. 1992, 1996, 2005; Prashanth Mohanraj et al.1993, 1998; Prashanth Mohanraj & Veenakumari 2002), we describe and figure some pre-imaginal stages of the three recently described saturniid species (A. meisteri, A. insularis and A. rudloffi), report on the natural host plants of A. meisteri and A. rudloffi, and describe the female of A. meisteri.
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1 July 2011
First Description of a Female of Antheraea meisteri Brechlin and Notes on Some Pre-Imagines of Three Recently Described Species of Saturniidae (Lepidoptera) from the Tropical Moist Forests of the Andaman Islands
K. Veenakumari,
Prashanth Mohanraj,
R. S. Peigler
Antheraea insularis
Antheraea meisteri
Antheraea rudloffi