Common name: Regal Moth
Scientific name: Citheronia regalis (Fabricius, 1793)

Class:
Insecta (Insects)
Order:
Lepidoptera (Butterflies, Skippers, and Moths)
Family:
Saturniidae (Giant Silkworm and Royal Moths)
Synonyms:
Other common names:

Habitat type(s):
Habitat description(s)
Palustrine:
FORESTED WETLAND
Terrestrial:
Forest/Woodland

Ecological systems and subsytems (about):
TERRESTRIAL - FORESTED UPLANDS:
Appalachian oak-hickory forest* (guide)
A hardwood forest that occurs on well-drained sites, usually on ridgetops, upper slopes, or south- and west-facing slopes. The soils are usually loams or sandy loams. This is a broadly defined forest community with several regional and edaphic variants. The dominant trees include red oak, white oak, and/or black oak. Mixed with the oaks, usually at lower densities, are pignut, shagbark, and/or sweet pignut hickory.
TERRESTRIAL - FORESTED UPLANDS:
Chestnut oak forest* (guide)
A hardwood forest that occurs on well-drained sites in glaciated portions of the Appalachians, and on the coastal plain. This forest is similar to the Allegheny oak forest; it is distinguished by fewer canopy dominants and a less diverse shrublayer and groundlayer flora. Dominant trees are typically chestnut oak and red oak.
TERRESTRIAL - FORESTED UPLANDS:
Coastal oak-hickory forest* (guide)
A hardwood forest with oaks and hickories codominant that occurs in dry, well-drained, loamy sand of knolls, upper slopes, or south-facing slopes of glacial moraines of the Atlantic Coastal Plain.
TERRESTRIAL - FORESTED UPLANDS:
Oak-tulip tree forest* (guide)
A hardwood forest that occurs on moist, well-drained sites in southeastern New York. The dominant trees include a mixture of five or more of the following: red oak, tulip tree, American beech, black birch, red maple, scarlet oak, black oak, and white oak.

* probable association but not confirmed.


Conservation:
Global conservation status rank:
G5
Secure globally - Common in the world; widespread and abundant (but may be rare in some parts of its range).
State conservation status rank:
S1
Critically Imperiled in New York - Especially vulnerable to disappearing from New York due to extreme rarity or other factors; typically 5 or fewer populations or locations in New York, very few individuals, very restricted range, very few remaining acres (or miles of stream), and/or very steep declines.
Federal protection:
Not Listed
State protection:
Not Listed
Not listed or protected by New York State.
SGCN:
NYNHP track status:
Y: Track all extant and selected historical EOs

More information:
Conservation guide:
https://guides.nynhp.org/regal-moth/
NatureServe explorer link:
https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.114866/Citheronia_regalis/