Gynanisa maja terrali

Updated as per personal communication with Thierry Bouyer, May 2006

Gynanisa maja terrali
gye-nuh-NEE-suhmmMAY-uh or MAH-juhmmTER-rahl-eye
Bouyer, 2001

Gynanisa maja terrali courtesy of Thierry Bouyer.
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: Bunaeini, Packard, 1902
Genus: Gynanisa, Walker, 1855

MIDI MUSIC

Wind Beneath My Wings
copyright C. Odenkirk
MIDI CITY
ON.OFF

DISTRIBUTION:

The Gynanisa maja terrali moth flies in
Kenya,
northern Tanzania: west Kilimanjaro: Simba Forest,
Somalia and
Ethiopia,
and possibly as far north as Mali.
There is a strong presence of white scaling on facing sides of the forewing am and pm lines.

Gynanisa maja terrali male, courtesy/copyright Anatolij Kulak.

Gynanisa maja terrali female, Kenya, (fw length 63mm), courtesy/copyright Anatolij Kulak.

FLIGHT TIMES AND PREFERRED FOOD PLANTS:

Moths are on the wing in February and March. Teemu Klemetti reports a November flight in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.
Gynanisa maja terrali larvae probably feed upon Acacia and Mopane.
Gynanisa maja terrali, courtesy of Andreas Riekert, id by Thierry Bouyer

ECLOSION, SCENTING AND MATING:

Eclosion is from a subterranean pupa. Males fly around midnight, the calling time of females.

Gynanisa maja terrali, Tanzania: Kilimanjaro: Simba Forest,
1900m, November 8, 2007, courtesy of Teemu Klemetti.

EGGS, LARVAE AND PUPAE:

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.

I do not know the source of Gynanisa, but it probaly comes from some combination of the following: "gyn" is a Latin prefix for woman. The Arabic "Anisa" (ah-NEE-sah) means "friendly, congenial." The Hindi "Anisha" means "end of night." Since "maja" is a common Hindi word, as are ata and jama, two other species in the genus, I suspect there is a link in their choices even though the species were determined in 1936 (maja), 1911 (ata) and 1915 (jama). The females of this species call around midnight, technically the end of the night, the beginning of a new day.

The species name maja or (maia) is probably from maia", in greek mythology, the goddess of land and growth. Maja is the Roman goddess of the spring time, for whom the month of May is named.

The subspecies name terrali is "for the late French Gilles Terral, a big Saturniidae (worlwide) collector. His collection is now housed in Lyon Museum (need verification)". (quote from Thierry Bouyer)

Larval Food Plants

Listed below are the primary food plant(s) and alternate food plants listed in Stephen E. Stone's Foodplants of World Saturniidae. 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.

Acacia
Colophospermum mopane.....

Acacia
Mopane