Page 363 - The Book of Caterpillars: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species From Around the World

MOTH CATERPILLARS

FAMILY Saturniidae
DISTRIBUTION Eastern Africa, from Ethiopia south to KwaZulu-Natal
(South Africa)
HABITAT Tropical forests and savannahs
HOST PLANTS Commihora spp., walnut (Juglans spp.), Sclerocarya spp.,
and Spirostachys spp.
NOTE Plump caterpillar that is often collected for human consumption
CONSERVATION STATUS Not evaluated

ADULT WINGSPAN
4⅝ in (120 mm)
CATERPILLAR LENGTH
3⅛ in (80 mm)
ACTIAS MIMOSAE
AFRICAN MOON MOTH 361

(BOISDUVAL, 1847)

The African Moon Moth caterpillar usually hatches with two
or three siblings but is completely independent of them. As it
develops through its five instars it becomes very plump and

rm, and as with many other large African moth species, this
caterpillar is regularly collected for human consumption. When

it has nished feeding, the larva discharges its gut contents and The African Moon Moth caterpillar is green,
becomes smaller, then spins a silvery cocoon. There are two shading to blue and yellow between the
segments. It has a pair of very long, tubercular
broods yearly in most African populations, but only one in scoli on the dorsum of each segment, each
the far south. tipped with a crown of small, black, harmless
spines and studded with long, white, rumpled
hairs. The head and thoracic legs are reddish
brown, and the prolegs are yellow and black

Actias mimosae was previously classi ed in the Argema genus with curved white bristles.
of moon moths, whose members were recently transferred to
the Actias genus. Actias now contains 26 moon moth species
worldwide, including A. luna, the American Luna Moth. The
genus probably originated in Eurasia, and only one ancestral
species spread to North America, from which A. luna and two
other Mexican and Central American species have derived.
Graellsia isabella is a third related moon moth, found in and
around the mountains of Spain.

Actual size