Hello fellow entomologists!
I have this question, and by searching on the English web I couldn't find any information about this, so I thought I'll have to ask about it on these forums.
Do you know of any stable local wild populations of Hyalophora cecropia, or other American saturnids (say, Actias luna), to occur in wild habitats in Europe, be it in Germany or UK, or elsewhere.
I think, as there are so many breeders of these moths in Europe, the moths could have, voluntarily or not, been introduced to wild habitats somewhere -- for example, by releasing a female full of eggs, or by releasing the excess larvae on trees growing outside.
As the climate here is very similar to that of places of North America where these moths occur naturally, the climate shouldn't be an issue.
There's plenty of hostplants for the larvae everywhere, too.
So why I couldn't find any information about wild populations of these moths in Europe?
Maybe most of breeders are aware of the dangers of invasive species, so they are very cautious to not let the moth escape outside?
Though these moths don't seem to be very agressively spreading ones, so they shouldn't cause significant change to native ecosystems.
Maybe here in Europe the predators of these moths are much more severe, so any established populations get eliminated very quickly, by, say, specific birds and bats who attack the large moths and larvae much more than in the America, or maybe the parasitoids in Europe are the main problem.
Or maybe some healthy, stable populations do actually exist in some very localized areas, and those populations are still young, and haven't spread more, due to moths not being far-travellers.
So what are your knowledge on this topic?