Eutachyptera#Use of larvae and silk

The caterpillars feed on the leaves of guava (Psidium sp.) and oak. They live communally in large silken nests, which can extend to {{Convert|50|cm|inch|abbr=}} or more in length.{{Cite web|url=https://facultyweb.cortland.edu/fitzgerald/Eutachyptera.html|title=Eutachyptera|website=facultyweb.cortland.edu|access-date=2020-01-17}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZRSbDwAAQBAJ&q=eutachyptera+psidii&pg=PA148|title=The Tent Caterpillars|last=Fitzgerald|first=Terrence D.|date=2019-06-07|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=978-1-5017-3457-1|pages=148|language=en|quote=E. psidii makes tents up to 80cm long ... the tent is reported to be one of the sources of the silk used by the indigenous Indians of Central America}}{{Cite journal|last=Peigler|first=Richard S.|date=1993-07-01|title=Wild Silks of the World|url=https://academic.oup.com/ae/article/39/3/151/2389340|journal=American Entomologist|language=en|volume=39|issue=3|pages=151–162|doi=10.1093/ae/39.3.151|issn=1046-2821|quote=Large nests can be more than a meter long, but they average less than half that size ... most authors consider that G. psidii was the main source of silk in the commerce of the ancient Mexicans before and during the time of Moctezuma.|url-access=subscription}} They remain in the nests by day and leave at night to feed, laying a trail of pheromones to help them and their nest-mates navigate to and from feeding areas.{{Cite journal|last1=Fitzgerald|first1=Terrence|last2=Pescador-Rubio|first2=Alfonso|date=2011-09-01|title=Trail Marking and Abandonment of Depleted Feeding Sites by the Caterpillars of Eutachyptera psidii (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae)|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226158713|journal=Journal of Insect Behavior|volume=24|issue=5|pages=380–392|doi=10.1007/s10905-011-9263-y|s2cid=31816341}}

Unusually among caterpillars, E. psidii larvae can remain active for as long as 18 days with no food, which they may have to do when their host trees lose their leaves in winter.{{Cite journal|last1=Fitzgerald|first1=Terrence D.|last2=Pescador‐Rubio|first2=Alfonso|last3=Isaacs|first3=Gary|date=2008|title=Foraging behaviour of the social caterpillar Eutachyptera psidii (Sallé) (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae) during a prolonged period of food and water deprivation|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2311.2008.01025.x|journal=Ecological Entomology|language=en|volume=33|issue=6|pages=727–734|doi=10.1111/j.1365-2311.2008.01025.x|s2cid=83865109|issn=1365-2311|url-access=subscription}}

The larvae are among the caterpillars traded and eaten in Mexico.{{Cite journal|last=Camacho|first=Víctor HM|title=Edible Lepidoptera in Mexico: Geographic distribution, ethnicity, economic and nutritional importance for rural people|journal=Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine|year=2011|volume=7|page=2|doi=10.1186/1746-4269-7-2|pmid=21211040|pmc=3034662|url=https://core.ac.uk/reader/192806640 |doi-access=free }}

The silk nests were used by the Aztecs, Mixtecs and Zapotecs to make a paper-like fabric, which was a commercial item at the time of Moctezuma.{{Cite book|title=Latin American insects and entomology|last=Hogue|first=Charles Leonard|date=1993|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0520078499|location=Berkeley|pages=328|language=en|oclc=25164105|quote=Aztec artisans cut up the large sacs, piecing together the resulting swatches into larger pieces of "fabric."}} Later, the Mixtec and other communities in Oaxaca extracted the silk fibres from the nests{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eUILAQAAIAAJ&q=psidii|title=Silk Raising in Colonial Mexico|last=Borah|first=Woodrow Wilson|date=1943|publisher=University of California Press|pages=114|language=en}} and wove them into sashes. This practise had ceased by 1997.{{Cite book|url=https://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications_resources/pdf_publications/pdf/unbroken_thread_eng_vl.pdf|title=The Unbroken Thread: Conserving the Textile Traditions of Oaxaca|last=de Avila|first=Alejandro|publisher=The Getty Conservation Institute|year=1997|editor-last=Klein|editor-first=Kathryn|location=Los Angeles|pages=125}}

The US National Center for Biotechnology Information lists the following synonyms for E. psidii:{{Cite web|url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?id=151306|title=Taxonomy Browser|last=taxonomy|website=www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov|access-date=2018-09-25}}

• Bombyx psidii
• Gloveria psidii
• Lasiocampa psidii
• Metanastria psidii
• Tachyptera psidii

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Category:Lasiocampidae

Category:Taxa named by William Barnes (entomologist)

Category:Taxa named by James Halliday McDunnough

Eutachyptera psidii

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