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Updated as per Bouyer's Catalogue of African Saturniidae, 1999, April 17, 2006 Updated as per personal communication with Thierry Bouyer, May 2006 Updated as per personal communication with Minetti Robert, January 25 2007 Updated as per All Leps Barcode of Life (Ethiopia and specific locations), September 2007 |
This site has been created by
Bill Oehlke at oehlkew@islandtelecom.com
Comments, suggestions and/or additional information are welcomed by Bill.
TAXONOMY:Superfamily: Bombycoidea Latreille, 1802 |
"African Midi Music" |
Thierry Bouyer confirms it also flies in eastern Tanzania: probably Tanga, Dar Es Salaam and Morogoro.
Minetti Robert reports Eosia insignis from W. Udzungwa National Parc, Iringa Region, at 560m in Tanzania, taken December 10, 2006. I think the specimen from W. Udzungwa, Tanzania, is more likely E. minettii, and the female from Ethiopia is more likely digennaroi. Perhaps E. insignis is limited to Kenya and northeastern Tanazania.) The Eosia insignis HT female is from Rendile, Kenya.
The All Leps Barcode of Life website indicates a presence in southern central Ethiopia: between Nazret and Goba; (more likely this is E. digennaroi).
The day-flying male is yellowish-white with a dark irregular bar running from the outer 2/3 of the costa to almost the midpoint of the outer margin. Veins above the bar are dark and there is some additional dark scaling just below the apex on the triangular forewings. The hindwing is yellowish-white with a dark, scalloped outer margin.
Eosia insignis female, courtesy of Eric van Schayck.
Eosia insignis female, Oxford University Museum of Natural History,
on my home computer only.
Larval host are unknown.
Thierry Bouyer describes this species as a "pierid like, day flying moth."
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The pronunciation of scientific names is
troublesome for many. The "suggestion" at the top of the page is
merely a suggestion. It is based on commonly
accepted English pronunciation of Greek names and/or some
fairly well accepted "rules" for latinized scientific names.
The suggested pronunciations, on this page and on other pages,
are primarily put forward to assist those who hear with internal
ears as they read.
There are many collectors from different countries whose
intonations and accents would be different.
Some of the early describers/namers chose genus
and species names indicating some character of the insect, but more
often, they simply chose names from Greek or Roman mythology or
history. Those species names which end in "ensis" indicate a
specimen locale, and those which end in "i", pronounced "eye", honour
a contempory friend/collector/etc.
The genus name "Eosia", I believe, is another name
for earth or large body of land.
The species name, "insignis" means remarkable or outstanding.