Saturnia spini

Saturnia spini, the sloe emperor moth, is a moth of the family Saturniidae. The species was first described by Michael Denis and Ignaz Schiffermüller in 1775. It is found from eastern Austria and Poland across eastern and south-eastern Europe to Greece, Turkey, Armenia, Ukraine, Crimea and Kazakhstan.

Range in Europe

Saturnia spini
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Saturniidae
Genus:	Saturnia
Species:	S. spini
Binomial name
Saturnia spini (Denis & Schiffermuller, 1775)
Synonyms
Saturnia media Esper, 1782 Saturnia obsoleta Tutt, 1902 Saturnia fusca Schultz, 1909 Saturnia oblitescens Schultz, 1909 Saturnia microphthalmica Schultz, 1909 Saturnia subhyalina Schultz, 1909 Saturnia contigua Schultz, 1909 Saturnia continua Jordan, 1911 Saturnia infumata Gschwandner, 1919 Saturnia conjuncta Gschwandner, 1919 Saturnia dilutibasis Gschwandner, 1919 Saturnia albescens Gschwandner, 1919 Saturnia lurida Gschwandner, 1923

It has a wingspan of 55–90 mm. Adults are on wing from April to June in one generation.

The larvae feed on Prunus spinosa, Rosa, Crataegus, Ulmus, Alnus, Salix, Populus and Malus in Europe. In Turkey and the Crimea it shows a preference for spiny members of the rose family.

There are no subspecies, although the population from the Ukraine and southern Russia is sometimes treated as a subspecies, Saturnia spini haversoni Watson, 1911.