Ecological observations on the genus Samia Hübner, 1819 (Lepidoptera, Saturniidae) of China, especially the natural hostplants

A few members within the genus Samia , have been widely collected and domesticated due to their sericultural or entomophagous value. Based on field observations in recent years, this article summarizes and analyzes relevant ecological information, especially focused on the hostplants in nature, related to all five species of this genus naturally distributed in China, and another population restricted to artificial environments. Plants in the families Rutaceae, Simaroubaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Lauraceae and Coriariaceae are considered suitable for feeding the caterpillars of most members of these wild silkworms, while Styracaceae and Theaceae require special attention in future field surveys or captive experiments. Combined with the results for Samia , an additional contribution of this work is to discuss the hostplant discoveries for the genera Archaeoattacus Watson, 1914 and Rhodinia Staudinger, 1892, which are also members of the tribe Attacini, to reveal potential homologies in hostplant preferences within a larger phylogenetic context beyond Samia .