DISTRIBUTION:

Nyceryx janzeni (wingspan: 50-60mm // forewing length = 25mm) flies in open and forested areas in
Bolivia: Santa Cruz: trail from Okinawa (243m) to Trinidad (261m) (HT);
Brazil: Amazonas: Tres Casas: Rio Madeira;
Colombia: Putamayo;
Ecuador: Napo: Coca and Rio Napo, 850m. Coca is the capitol of Orellana, suggesting a location further to the east.

This is "a very distinctive species with its straight submarginal white band on the forewing." Mielke & Haxaire

It is probably most similar to Nyceryx stuarti which is darkere and lacks the almost continuous, this white band.

Nyceryx janzeni, 57m, Santa Cruz, Bolivia, courtesy/copyright of Jean Haxaire.

Nyceryx janzeni, Purtamayo, Colombia, courtesy/copyright of Toms Melichar,
significant digital repair by Bill Oehlke, obscuring fw celll mark.

FLIGHT TIMES:

Moths are probably on the wing in just about every month with confirmed reports for June - July and September.

ECLOSION:

Adults eclose, usually within three to five weeks from pupation date.

SCENTING AND MATING:

Females call in the males with a pheromone released from a gland at the tip of the abdomen.

Females are active just after midnight with males beginning night flight around 1:00 am.

EGGS, LARVAE, PUPAE:

Larvae possibly feed on Pentagonia donnell-smithii, and Chimarrhis parviflora, but neither food plant has been confirmed. Inga species should also be explored.

Isuspect the species name, janzeni, is honourific for Daniel H. Janzen, but I have no confirmation of that.

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Ian Kitching: "Most similar to Nyceryx stuarti but smaller (on average, fw length about 1 cm), ground colour of forewing upperside paler brown, and upperside of body paler, lacking purplish sheen and with the last two segments not significantly darker than the rest. Similar in size to Nyceryx riscus but distinguished by the paler forewing upperside, less contrasted transverse lines and the narrower submarginal zone, the inner edge of which is almost straight and has a uniformly narrow and well defined dark line basally.

Forewing upperside similar to Nyceryx stuarti but paler and lacking the purplish sheen of the majority of specimens of that species; discal spot conspicuous, white (in Nyceryx stuarti, the discal spot is brown and very inconspicuous); inner edge of submarginal area straight between Rs4 and CuA2 and bounded basally by a well defined, narrow black line (in Nyceryx stuarti, the inner edge of the submarginal area is evenly, if shallowly, curved and is bounded basally by a broader black line of irregular thickness; in Nyceryx riscus, the inner edge of the submarginal area is even more strongly curved and the basal black line even wider, often strongly triangularly expanded on M3).

"Hindwing upperside similar to both Nyceryx stuarti and Nyceryx riscus but basal yellow area broader and outer edge more convex between M1 and CuA2. 25 mm. Wingspan: 55-60 mm (average = 57 mm, n = 10).