Updated as per Pinhey's Emperor Moths of South and South-Central Africa, 1972, April 17, 2006
Updated as per Bouyer's Catalogue of African Saturniidae, 1999, April 17, 2006
Updated as per Cooper's The Emperor Moths of KwaZulu-Natal, 2002, April 17, 2006
Updated as per personal communication with Thierry Bouyer, May 2006
Updated as per personal communication with Cyril Di Gennaro (melichari, Ethiopia), November 29, 2008
Updated as per wiki/Urota; (koupensis, manicaensis, nguruensis, ulembwensis, zambiensis); December 23, 2013

UROTA OF THE WORLD


Urota sinope female courtesy of Jacolene van der Vyver.

UROTA WESTWOOD, 1849

The Urota are members of the Urotini tribe of Subfamily Saturniinae, Family Saturniidae.

P indicates an image is available.

The species within this genus all fly in Africa.

Listing of Urota, Westwood, 1849

N centralis, Bouyer, 2008, Democratic Republic of Congo: Katanga; Zambia
N conjuncta, Bouvier, 1930, Malawi: Limbe
P herbuloti Darge, 1975, Cameroon; Democratic Republic of Congo; Angola; probably People's Republic of the Congo
P koupensis, Darge, 2011 Cameroon: Mt. Koupé, Loum, Littoral Cameroun, 900-1500 m
N manicaensis, Basquin, 2012 Mozambique: Province de Manica, Serra Choa, 1400 m, December
P melichari *, Bouyer, 2008, Ethiopia
N nguruensis, Darge, 2011 Tanzania, Pwani Region, savane de Mandera, 170 m., 06°14.300'8., 038°23.197'E; March.
P sinope (Westwood, 1849) South Africa (Natal, Transvaal), Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Angola, Malawi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Cameroon; probably Gabon, probably People's Republic of the Congo
N ulembwensis, Darge, 2011 Tanzania, Iringa Region, Ulembwe, 2070 m., 09°18.709' S., 034°38.078' E; December.
P zambiensis, Darge, 2011 Zambia, Sanje Region, Mfwanta, February

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.

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