Distribution
Distribution of Urania sloanus during the time of Gosse.
Distribution
Endemic to Jamaica, where apparently extinct since around 1895, but possibly as late as 1908 (Vinciguerra, 2009).
Record for Cuba (Lucas, 1857) doubtful.
Habitat
Tropical rainforest at lower elevation (larvae only recorded from sea level, moths at elevations up to about 700m), containing Omphalea species, especially the Jamaican Cobnut, O. triandra
Population biology
- Reports indicated cycles of great abundance and scarcity (Gosse, 1851; Lewis, 1944; Lees and Smith, 1991)
- Swarms were observed
- at Walton (on 9 March, Gosse, 1880),
- at Bluefields Mountain [SW]
- near the coast in mid-March (Gosse, 1851)
- on 18 June, freshly emerged near Basin/Beeston Spring (Gosse, 1851)
- at flowers in April, 1881
- at Bogue Bay [near Montego Bay, NW] in the third week of June, 1880 (Gosse; 1881); and
- in Portland in the Blue Mountains [E] (Townsend, 1893)
In summary adults were commonest between mid-March and late July and usually rare in the winter (Gosse, 1851, Gosse, 1880; Townsend, 1893) although occasionally observed around Christmas.