Chrysiridia rhipheus
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 Engraving of 1869 captioned Urania riphaeus
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| Chrysiridia rhipheus (Hübner, 1823), (Cramer, 1782) (Drury, 1773, originally Papilio rhipheus) |
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 Contained in Madagascar
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Urania rhipheus |
The Madagascan Sunset Moth, or simply Sunset Moth (Chrysiridia rhipheus, also known as Urania rhipheus, U. rhiphaeus,[1] C. rhiphaeus,[2] and C. madagascariensis[1]) is a moth of the Uraniidae family.
Native Malagasy people call it Adriandolo or Lolonandriana, meaning noble butterfly,[1] or noble spirit.[3]
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[edit] Description
Chrysiridia rhipheus (Drury, 1773) has a wingspan of 7,5 to 9 cm (3 to 3 1/2 inches).[4] It is black with iridescent red, blue and green markings. The iridescent parts of the wings do not have pigment; the color originates from refraction of light by the ribbon-like scales covering the moth’s wings. This characteristic makes this species and its neotropical relative Urania common subjects of optical sciences. [5]
This moth is often considered as one of the most impressive and beautiful Lepidoptera. It was known by Victorians who used its wings to make jewellery.[6][7]
[edit] Habits
The Sunset Moth is day flying while most moths are active at night.
[edit] Range
Chrysiridia rhipheus is endemic to Madagascar, ranging from the eastern forest in places where Omphalea oppositifolia [8] occurs whence it migrates occasionally across the high plateaux establishing seasonal populations in the western limestone karst. [9] Its sister species C. croesus occurs in Eastern Tanzania
[edit] Life cycle
[edit] Caterpillar
Its caterpillar is whitish-yellow with black spots and red feet and is covered in club-ended black setae.
[edit] Pupa
The caterpillar pupates in an open network cocoon on the ground .[7][10]
[edit] Host plants
The larva feeds exclusively on species of Omphalea Euphorbiaceae containing alkaloids potentially sequestered or excreted by the caterpillar, the pupa and the moth. [11]
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ a b c d e (French) Decary, Raymond (1950). La Faune Malgache. Payot Paris.
- ^ a b "Import Health Standard for the Importation of Tropical Butterfly and Moth Pupae into New Zealand" in "Biosecurity New Zealand". Retrieved November 8, 2006.
- ^ Dispatches from the Vanishing World Our Far Flung Correspondents (Madagascar), Page 2. Retrieved December 19, 2006.
- ^ The Sunset Moth (Urania riphaeus) on ButterflyUtopia.com. Retrieved December 23, 2006.
- ^ Prum,R.O. Quinn T. and Torres, R.H. 2006. Anatomically diverse butterfly scales all produce structural colours by coherent scattering. The Journal of Experimental Biology 209, 748-765 doi:10.1242/jeb.02051 [available at http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/209/4/748.pdf]
- ^ Urania ripheus page in "Newman Art Desings". Retrieved October 24, 2006.
- ^ a b Carter, David (2000). Butterflies and Moths (Eyewitness Handbook). Dorling Kindersley Publishing. ISBN 1-56458-062-8.
- ^ http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/Madagasc/euphorb/nme05458.html
- ^ Lees, David and Neal Smith (1991) "Foodplants of the Uraniinae (Uraniinae) and their Systematic, Evolutionary and Ecological Significance" or an OCR of the pdf document. In Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society, vol. 45. Retrieved October 29, 2006.
- ^ (French) Chrysiridia rhipheus page in "Insectarium de Montréal". Retrieved October 29, 2006.
- ^ Kite, G.C., Fellows, L.E., Lees, D.C., Kitchen, D. & Monteith, G.B. 1991. "Alkaloidal glycosidase inhibitors in nocturnal and diurnal uraniine moths and their respective foodplant genera, Endospermum and Omphalea. Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 19 (6): 441-445."
[edit] External links
- Nature's Iridescence, An Electron Microscopic Study Contains pictures of the Sunset Moth’s green iridescent scales.
- God of Insects Sunset Moth picture, (underside in top of the picture top view in the bottom)
- WildMadagascar.org Two photos of a wild Sunset Moth.
