DISTRIBUTION:

Thierry Bouyer indicates Gonimbrasia hoehnelii (wingspan: males 91-93mm; females: 90-102mm) flies in
Tanzania: Kilimanjaro;
DR Congo and
western Kenya: Mount Longonot (DR); Nyahururu (NS).
Kenya: Northern Slope of Kilimanjaro, -2.966, 37.319, collected by J. -M. Bompar, 2004-06-11;
Kenya: Northern Slope of Kilimanjaro, -2.966, 37.319, collected by J. -M. Bompar, 2004-06-11;

It is treated as a subspecies of tyrrhea on Mirror system.

Gonimbrasia hoehnelii, male, Nyahururu, Kenya,
June 24, 2005, courtesy of Nigel Sluman, id by Bill Oehlke.

This page will be updated as images and information become available. Currently I have very little information.

Concerning the images sent to me by Dave Rolfe, Dave writes, "They were ex ova from Mount Longonot in W. Kenya, about 1200m. altitude if my memory serves me correctly. I did take copious notes as I reared them but I seem to have misplaced them at present. They were given to me by a friend (David Agassiz, a Micro collector) who travels to Kenya frequently. The eggs were laid, Lasiocampid style, around a twig of a type of heather which David said was about 6 feet high. They were emerging when he gave them to me so I started them off on ordinary bell heather. This was in short supply at the time so I tried the Saturnia pavonia trick of weaning them on to bramble which they took to readily. They quickly grew and duly pupated underground, well, under the paper on the bottom of the cage, but they would have gone down had I supplied some earth.

"I left them dry for a few months and then sprayed them daily with tepid water to break the diapause which seemed to work. I managed to get 3 pairings but one batch of eggs were infertile and another hatched but refused to eat anything, must have been some environmental deficiency I guess. The 3rd batch I gave to a friend who tried them on bramble which they refused, so, he having no heather, went out and bought some from a local garden centre which they ate and promptly died. We came to the conclusoin that the plant had been sprayed with some kind of insecticide as we had heard of similar cases before."

Gonimbrasia hoehnelii female, 90mm, Mount Longonot, Kenya, courtesy of Dave T. Rolfe.

FLIGHT TIMES AND PREFERRED FOOD PLANTS:

Nigel Sluman reports a June 24, 2005 flight in Nyahururu in southwestern Kenya, following the long rainy season from March til May. There may be flights at other times, possibly after the short rainy season in October-November. Mirror systems reports specimens taken in Kenya in mid June.

Gonimbrasia hoehnelii female, Kenya, courtesy of Paul Sabayi.

Gonimbrasia hoehnelii aberrant female, Mount Longonot, Kenya, courtesy of Dave T. Rolfe.

The aberrant female has no antennae as she did not develop any! I looked with a lens and all there are is two tiny black blobs where the antennae should be.

ECLOSION, SCENTING AND MATING:

Eclosion is from underground pupae.

EGGS, LARVAE AND PUPAE:

Gonimbrasia hoehneli fifth instar, Mount Longonot, Kenya, courtesy of Dave T. Rolfe.

It is hoped that this alphabetical listing followed by the common name of the foodplant will prove useful. The list is not exhaustive. Experimenting with closely related foodplants is worthwhile.

Heather .......

Heather

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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 Gonimbrasia means "angled one liking rain" according to Pinhey.

The species name hoehnelii is honourific for Hoehnel (possibly von Hoehnel).