Urota melichari
you-ROH-tuhMMEL-lih-shar-eye
(Bouyer, 2008)

Urota melichari male, Ethiopia, courtesy of Cyril Di Gennaro.

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 Family: Saturniidae Boisduval, [1837] 1834 Subfamily: Saturniinae Boisduval, [1837] 1834 Tribe: Urotini, Packard, 1902 Genus: Urota, Westwood, 1849

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DISTRIBUTION:

Urota melichari flies in Ethiopia.

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 provides a series of images in close proximity with some notes to hopefully help me and others with determinations. 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.

Additional submissions of digital images with as much data as possible should help to improve the accuracy of this website. Verso images may also prove to be very helpful with determinations. All submissions are greatly appreciated, and all photos remain the property of respective photographers.

FLIGHT TIMES AND PREFERRED FOOD PLANTS:

Urota melichari larvae possibly ?? feed upon various Erythrina species (Coral tree), Laburnum (Bean tree), Robinia pseudoacacia (Black locust/False acacia) and Sclerocarya caffra (Wild mango).

Urota melichari female, Ethiopia, courtesy of Cyril Di Gennaro.

ECLOSION, SCENTING AND MATING:

Males, which are slightly smaller than females, use highly developed antennae to track the airbourne female pheromone at night.

Males also have tail-like extensions on the lower wings.

EGGS, LARVAE AND PUPAE:

Larvae pupate underground.

Larval Food Plants

Listed below are possible ?? food plant(s) based on those used by closely related species.

Elysistemon Erythrina abyssinica Erythrina caffra Erythrina lysistemon Erythrina tomentosa..... Eucalyptus Laburnum Robinia pseudoacacia Sclerocarya caffra

Coral tree Coral tree Coral tree Coral tree Coral tree Eucalyptus Bean tree Black locust/False acacia Wild mango

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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.

According to Pinhey, 1972, "Urota" means "tailed ear" or ear-shaped tail.

The species name, "melichari" is probably honorific for Melichar.