Botswana
Heniocha dyops male, Gaborone, Botswana,
March 4, 2014, courtesy of Dian, via Daniel Marlos.
Heniocha dyops male, Gaborone, Botswana,
March 4, 2014, courtesy of Dian, via Daniel Marlos.
Unfortunately the country's people have a very high rate of AIDS infection.
The geography and topography give rise to semiarid conditions with warm winters and hot summers over a predominantly flat to gently rolling tableland. The Kalahari Desert is in southwestern Botswana.
Periodic droughts and limited fresh water supplies limit foliage in some areas.
I suspect good Saturniidae populations in northern sectors along the Okavango Delta and Linyanti River. I also suspect a good number of species from the capital of Gaborone and in the southeast.
On May 16, 2004, Rolf Oberprieler sent me a checklist for Botswana. Those species with questionmarks are "probable" species, not yet confirmed.
Rolf favours listing Cirina forda with the Imbrasia genus, and he indicates Gynanisa nigra is not a distinct species, just a dark form of
Gynanisa maja.
Two species, Imbrasia tyrrhea and Heniocha apollonia, have been removed from my original list as Rolf indicates they do not fly in Botswana.
He indicates the list may not be complete and writes, "There are very few Botswana records in all southern African collections (I've been thru all of them)."
I have added Holocerina agomensis based on Pinhey's inclusion in Transvaal (south of Botswana) and in countries to the north and west of Botswana.
It is often difficult to identify moths, especially very similar ones, by looking at a digital image. Below is an image of either Pseudobunaea irius or Pseudobunaea pallens. I favour the latter.
Peudobunaea pallens??, Botswana, courtesy of Gerry,
via Daniel Marlos of What's That Bug?, tentative id by Bill Oehlke.
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