Chrysiridia rhipheus
Chrysiridia rhipheus, the Madagascan sunset moth, is a species of day-flying moth of the family Uraniidae. It is very colourful, though the iridescent parts of the wings do not have pigment; rather the colours originate from optical interference. Adults have a wingspan of 7–9 cm. Females lay about 80 eggs under the leaves of Omphalea spp.
About Chrysiridia rhipheus in brief
Chrysiridia rhipheus, the Madagascan sunset moth, is a species of day-flying moth of the family Uraniidae. It is very colourful, though the iridescent parts of the wings do not have pigment; rather the colours originate from optical interference. Adults have a wingspan of 7–9 cm. Dru Drury, who described the moth in 1773, placed it in the genus Papilio, considering it a butterfly. Jacob Hübner placed it into the moth genus Chrysiridia in 1823. At first the moth was thought to be from China or Bengal, but was later found to be endemic to Madagascar. Females lay about 80 eggs under the leaves of Omphalea spp. The caterpillars are whitish yellow with black spots and red feet and are covered in club-ended black setae. Silk spun from the mouth helps the caterpillar hold on to smooth leaves and climb back to the plant when they fall. This silk has also been known to cause a euphoric high to those who consume it. The moth has an uncanny resemblance to swallowtail butterflies, especially in its colourful wings and can easily be mistaken for a butterfly in its tails. ChrysIRidia is one of three diurnal uraniine genera. The other two genera are Urania, its sister taxon, and Alcides, the most basal.
The more basal Alcides feed on Endospermum and Omphales, while the more basal Urania and Urania only feed on Omphala. Chrysiralea is an ancestral state, while Urania is an an ancestral Urania state. The species is found in the highlands, 900–1,080 metres above sea level in Madagascar. Like many other uraniini moths, the sunset moth is black, blue, green and green, with red and green markings. It has a median wingspan of 7cm ; moths from lower altitudes, 600 m, have a medianm, 9cm. Like many others, it is a specialist herbivore of the four species of Om phalea in Madagascar, which is toxic. Thousands of these moths migrate between the eastern and western ranges of their host plants. The pupal stage lasts from 17 to 23 days. Native Malagasy people call it adriandolo or lolonandriana, from lolo for lolo, meaning ‘noble spirit’ or ‘butterfly’, and andriana for ‘king’ or ‘king spirit’ The moth is entirely African and the only other species is the East African C. croesus. in 1833, William Swainson named the butterfly Rhip heus dasycephalus and the moth Leilus orientalis.
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This page is based on the article Chrysiridia rhipheus published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 31, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
