Since I have this stock from Togo, I've changed my mind about a thousand times. Is it Aurivillius aratus or triramis? Problem is, both species look so similar that it's hard to keep them apart. The caterpillars didn't help much either. I will publish those in a couple of days so that you can see for yourselves. They are more colorful then some of the final instar pictures you find on the internet (like the Franz Ziereis aratus caterpillar), but seem a fairly good match for the aratus final instar photographed by Kirby Wolfe (see africanmoths.com). So it's possible that the larvae are fairly variable. Probably I'm going to switch back to aratus one day. When I have more free time, I will try to find some scientific articles to see if I can get a better match for the caterpillars (don't hesitate to help me with that - you would save me a lot of time). Meanwhile, I'm going to keep them as triramis. It's a fantastic, smaller Saturniid. Females have a wingspan of ten to eleven centimeter, the males are a little smaller (nine to ten centimeter). This species is widespread throughout tropical Africa from Gambia in the West to Kenya in the east and south throughout the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. Depending on your breeding conditions they will have multiple flights per year.
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| Aurivillius triramis female - Origin: Togo |
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| Aurivillius triramis male - Origin: Togo |
