Urota Comparison Plate

Urota zambiensis male, December 8, 2009,
Jonathan McCalled, id by Bill Oehlke.

With the advent of DNA barcoding analysis in 2008, hundreds of "new species" have been designated from the thousands of Saturniidae specimen samples submitted for examination.

The Urota Comparison plate below provides a series of images in close proximity with some notes to hopefully help me and others with determinations. Please note, descriptions are my own, in some cases from only a single digital image of a worn specimen!

I do not have images of all species available for public display, but perhaps the locations and descriptions will help other viewers.

Almost all of the specimens with new designations existed in collections under the label of Urota sinope, and they are quite similar in appearance to sinope. I am not sure if Urota sinope is limited to southern Africa, being replaced by similar species in more northern locales, or if sinope flies in most of Africa, possibly even existing in the same habitats with the cryptic species. Perhaps some of the look-alikes will be synonymized, either with each other or with sinope.

Urota sinope male Urota sinope female South Africa chestnut brn basal/median areas; orangey pm area with dark grey suffusions light grey areas near hw anal angle Urota herbuloti male Urota herbuloti female Cameroon; Angola; DRC; grey-brown fw; slightly darker grey pm areas. hw cell: wht streak long tails Urota koupensis male Female undescribed Male fw apex: pointed; concave upper half of outer margin hw cell mark almost vestigial, very weak tail greatly extended S. Cameroon: Mt. Koupe; Elone. grey-brown fw; slightly darker grey pm areas. hw has extended appearance Urota melichari male Urota melichari female Ethiopia: Sidamo, near Negele, 890 m pm line: strong inturn near costa; convex fw pml closer to outer margin Urota ulembwensis male Urota ulembwensis female Tanzania: Iringa Region 2070m tails extend inline with inner half of very smooth edge of outer margin Urota nguruensis male The female is unknown; the male seems to have an almost uniform red ground colour, perhaps lighter in hw basal/median area; male fw apex is quite pointed with upper half of outer margin concave Tanzania Pwani Region 170m pml curved inward near costa; otherwise straight and quite oblique Urota centralis male Urota centralis female D. R. Congo: Katanga: Upemba N P large grey-brown with lighter grey suffusions in fw pm area Urota manicaensis male Urota manicaensis female Mozambique: Manica uniform orangey-brown; lines quite straight; deeper red in hw basal/median area Urota conjuncta male Urota conjuncta female Malawi: Limbe strong white suffusions in submarginal areas pale pink-orange hw basal/median area Urota zambiensis male uniform bright orange ... Urota zambiensis female with rosy suffusions in hw basal-median area. Zambia; SE DRC: Sakania grey marks in fw sbmrgl area; white of fw am/pm lines wide, fuses along i.m.

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Even after using the table above, I have difficulty placing the following specimens, and I suspect identifications will be next to, if not altogether, impossible without DNA sampling and analysis.

Thierry Bouyer supplies the image (left) from Rwanda, listed as Urota sinope with determination before advent of DNA barcoding analysis. Location, strong orange colouration with fused am/m lines along inner margin, light grey suffusions in submarginal areas and very circular, prominent forewing cell spot make me wonder if it is perhaps undescribed female of Urota zambiensis.

Thierry Bouyer supplies the image (left) from Rwanda, listed as Urota sinope with determination before advent of DNA barcoding analysis. This specimen shows a more concave am line with an indentation at the cubitus. It also show shadowing of dark hindwing median band; both features more typical of Urota ulembwensis from Tanzania. DNA analysis will probably be necessary to determine many of the Urota species.