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Updated as per Bouyer's Catalogue of African Saturniidae, 1999, May 13, 2006 |
This site has been created by
Bill Oehlke at oehlkew@islandtelcom.com
Comments, suggestions and/or additional information are welcomed by
Bill.
TAXONOMY:Superfamily: Bombycoidea, Latreille, 1802 |
Wind Beneath My Wings |
Bunaea alcinoe,
The African Emperor or Common Emperor (wingspan: 139-154mm plus), flies
throughout equatorial Africa and south to Natal: |  |
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The moth is well represented on African postage stamps.Larvae serve as a valuable human food source as evidenced on this People's Republic of the Congo postage stamp.
Bunaea alcinoe male, Kolwezi, Katanga, Democratic Republic of the Congo, The native people are more interested in the caterpillers for food than they are in the adult insects for display. I guess one species is as tasty as the next, so they are all amacimbi. Regarding the colouration of this larva, see the notes at the bottom of the page. |
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Bunaea alcinoe female, Kruger National Park, South Africa,
February 25, 2008, © Arno Meintjes
Bunaea alcinoe female, Drakensberg, Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa,
November 2, 2008, David Collins.
The African Emperor adults emerge in the spring, often after a warm rain.Jean-Louis Albert has sent an image of a Bunaea alcinoe female (recto and verso) and male (recto and verso) from Franceville, Gabon, f taken November 30, 2007; m taken May 5, 2008. Jean-Louis Albert has also taken this species in April. Jacolene Meyer reports them on the wing in mid November in Limpopo Province in South Africa. In Kenya it has been taken in January, and March-April. Michelle Constanza, via Antoine Guyonnet, reports flights of Bunaea alcinoe in Yokadouma, Est Province, Cameroun in April-May. Bunaea alcinoe larvae feed on Celtis, Croton, Cussonia, Ekebergia, Maesa, Terminalia, Gymnosporia and many other foods, including privet, plum and hawthorn in captivity. The underside of this moth is much different from the dorsal surface, but the shape and size of the forewing hyaline spot remains true. It has also been reported on Maesa lanceolata, Sapium ellipticum, Ekegergia ruepeli et al. Bunaea alcinoe male, Cameroon, underside. Identification by Philippe Darge. |
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Visit Bunaea alcinoe male (recto and verso), Kirawira, western Serengeti, Tanzania, February 22, 2009, 4170 feet, courtesy of David Bygott.
Visit Bunaea alcinoe males, Bambari, Ouaka, Republic of Central Africa, June 2005 and Sakania, Katanga, Democratic Republic of the Congo, January 2013, courtesy of Nigel Voaden.
Bunaea alcinoe male (verso), Gabon, courtesy of Jean-Louis Albert.
The Cabbage tree emperor moth, Bunaea alcinoe, derives its common name from the fact that its caterpillars have a preference for cabbage trees (Cussonia), where they can be found during December. The moth is also celebrated on a South African stamp, issued 20 September 2002.Argema mimosae was honoured at the same time. |  |
Eggs are large, round, and cream coloured, and have a deep indentation at the micropyle.Larvae prefer fresh food and a warm, humid atmosphere. In the final instar, airy conditions are preferred. When larvae are disturbed they will lash their heads and front segments violently back and forth. |  |
Bunaea alcinoe
Bunaea alcinoe larva, courtesy of Franz Ziereis copyright.
Bunaea alcinoe fifth instar, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa,
on cabbage tree, January 6, 2009, courtesy of René Malherbe.
Bunaea alcinoe fifth instar, Senegal,
July 2010, courtesy of Elspeth Kenny.
Rolf Oberprieler recently wrote, "The larva of Bunaea alcinoe does indeed come in two rather distinct colour forms. In West and Central Africa it is mostly brick-red with yellow spines (except the first two pairs, the thoracic ones, which are black), and in southern and eastern Africa it is entirely black with white spines (again except the black thoracic ones). The S-E African form is very constant, i.e. always completely jet-black, but the W-C African form can also be black instead of red, although the spines always seem to be yellow, never white. There are colour illustrations of both types in the literature, but I would have to comb through my literature to find the best or first in both cases. The red W-C form is figured in colour i.a. by Rougeot (1955, fig. 13 – not very good), and Paul Latham in his recent booklet on the edible caterpillars of Bas-Congo gives a nice photo of the black W-C form (on p. 12) and also one with both forms together (p. 3). Boorman (1970) in his booklet on the emperor moths of Nigeria also said that there are these 2 colour forms in Nigeria (the black one app. having black spines – I’ve not seen this confirmed, though). His fig. (plate 2) is only black-and-white but seems to represent the black form.
"I may have the book Howard mentions as containing a description of larva in Nigeria, but it’s not one of the well-known ones and I can’t find it in a hurry. At first I thought it may have been Packard (1914), who covered different fauna’s together and used old names like Caligula, but the page numbers don’t match. Would appreciate if you could get me the author so that I can check. "Regarding the taxonomy and nomenclature of the species, one CAN’T use the name caffraria for the W-C African form (“subspecies”) of B. alcinoe. Firstly because caffraria, established by Stoll (1790) as Phalaena (Attacus) caffraria, is a junior primary homonym of Phalaena caffraria Linnaeus, 1767 in Geometridae and thus NOT an available name in Saturniidae. Its replacement name is caffra Huebner, 1819. Secondly because Stoll’s name was actually erected for the southern African form, not the W-C African one, so if you recognise such subspecies in B. alcinoe, caffra can only apply to a southern (or south-eastern) one.
"But, as I wrote the other day, such a division of B. alcinoe into subspecies is problematic also for other reasons. Firstly, it is difficult to distinguish (separate) a possible W-C and S-E form (“race”, “subspecies”) because there don’t appear to be clear-cut differences and a clear geographical division between such forms. In theory this might occur on the eastern border of the Central African rainforests, but it seems no-one has investigated this in detail yet. Secondly, we can’t be certain to which population the name alcinoe really applies, as already Stoll didn’t know where the type specimen came from, and his illustration is not clear enough either. If alcinoe was described from somewhere in West Africa, this would be the valid name for any W-C form or “subspecies”, and caffra the valid name for a S-E form. However, if the type specimen of alcinoe actually also came from southern (or eastern) Africa, the S-E form would carry the name alcinoe (with caffra its synonym), and the W-C form would take the next-oldest name established for it. Oberthuer (1910) investigated this issue in the past but didn’t resolve it, and I’m not sure whether anyone since has found Stoll’s type and re-interpreted it.
"If alcinoe is not referable to the W-C form, working out this next-oldest name is again a thorny issue. The oldest names clearly assignable to the W-C form would be one of Dufrane’s (alberici, atlantica, katangensis), all described in 1953 from Zaire. However, there are also Rothschild’s tricolor from Ethiopia (1895), Oberthuer’s alcinoina from Mpala in Tanzania (1910) and Jordan’s nubica from Sudan (1910), and one would first have to sort out whether these populations belong to the W-C or the S-E form. There’s also punctigera Wallengren, 1860, for which we also have no type locality and thus no clear evidence of where it is from. The last 5 available species-group names are mostly from southern Africa and all referable to the S-E form.
All in all quite a mess, as you can see. The best option for the time being (April 2005) is therefore not to attempt any division into subspecies and just refer to the species as Bunaea alcinoe wherever it occurs. Just forget about caffraria and caffra and all this subspecific stuff. Except for Madagascar that is, the species there (B. aslauga) is different.
"Hope this clarifies things. It’s a rather convoluted affair, unfortunately."
Rolf had written in response to email I shared from Howard Romack:
Howard's Email:
"Hi Bill,
I collected caterpillars- brick orange in color with black
spines- several years ago while collecting in Liberia. I was there
for six weeks, and many of the moths and other arthropods were
difficult to classify, but I managed to obtain a few pupae from
these large, polyphemus-sized larvae. Eventually the adults emerged,
and with the help of specialists, discovered that the moths
were B. a. caffraria. The larva you pictured
(#6 on another site) is nothing like those, and there were hundreds
of them tumbling out of the trees, (a trait that these big
caterpillars do preceeding burrowing into the ground) that I found in
Liberia. I might also tell you that I have one bilateral
gynandromorph of this moth that, after soaking the pupa
in warm water, finally emerged among the others."
Howard also reports a "book" in which he found the
"description of the larva, from Nigeria, of
B. a. caffraria Stoll (= caffra Hubner = Nytalops Wallengren =Derbania Oberthur) The
Nigerian larva changes color to "brick-red" in the third instar....
This moth is a spectacular creature- it emerged here at home in an
aquarium after I submerged the pupae in a sink of warm water. They are truly armor plated, and
obiously won't emerge until the next rainy season following pupation.
Oftentimes, heavy rains wash them out in windrows! The adults were
very common at our collecting lights over there."
Bunaea alcinoe larva (red form), Ghana, courtesy of Ben Mensah, via Matthew Barnes.
Visit Bunaea alcinoe male and larva, courtesy of Gary Saunders.
Visit Bunaea alcinoe males, and instars 2 and 5, courtesy of Leroy Simon.
Visit Bunaea alcinoe female, courtesy of Jurgen Vanhoudt.
Antoine Guyonnet reports larvae feeding on Cananga odorata in Douala, Cameroon, May 13, 2013
Acacia auriculiformis |
Acacia auriculiformis |
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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.
The species name, alcinoe, is for Alcinoe, daughter of Polybus
of Corinth and wife of Amphilochus, son of Dryas. She refused to pay
the full wages to a weaver she had hired, and the woman prayed to
Athena to avenge her. The goddess afflicted Alcinoe with a passion
for Xanthus of Samos and she left her husband and children and ran
away with him. Coming to her senses in the middle of the voyage, she
wept bitter tears and threw herself into the sea.
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