Trabala vishnou

 

 

Distribution:

widespread in Oriental Asia, from India to China and south throughout Indonesia and Malaysia. Subspecies guttata (shown here) is from Taiwan.

Wingspan:

In between 5 (males) and 7, sometimes 8 (females) centimeter

Season:

broods continuously in captivity, with several flights per year

Food plants:

Quercus and relatives (Fagus, Carpinus, ...) are the best choice during summer months, but they also do well on Rosa, Rubus, Camelia, Rhododendron and Eucalyptus. Many other food plants are reported. 

Rearing:

In general this species should not give you any problems. Nonetheless avoid wet conditions. They can be reared in well ventilated, plastic containers even in the final instar as long as you provide enough space for the caterpillars and avoid all condensation. Never spray or give wet leaves, even though the caterpillars like to drink water (it's not at all necessary for them to grow and wet conditions promote the spread of diseases). Not a fast grower. The caterpillars need up to 8 weeks before they pupate (especially during winter months reared with lower temperatures and food of lesser quality). The pupal stage on the other hand is short, 2 to 3 weeks.

Difficulties:

none