Silkmoths and more: Gynanisa ata

The African Gynanisa genus is always good for some great looking caterpillars. No difference for Gynanisa ata. The caterpillars in this post are the offspring of a female I caught in the Malawian Dzalanyama Forest. Turned out that they were not difficult to rear at all. They immediately accepted Prunus laurocerasus. The first instars are gregarious, but become less and less social when they grow. Watch out for overcrowding at the end. Fully grown caterpillars really need space. The growth is slow. This may have been because of the winter rearing or the substitute food plant, but it took more then two months before the first one started to pupate. Unless you can provide rearing conditions with a somewhat higher ambient humidity, they are best housed in well ventilated plastic containers and preferably even not too large ones so that the plants inside can provide for the needed humidity. Keep dry though, no spraying and watch out for condensation. Eventually they grow quite big, up to ten centimeter. The real growth starts in the final instar. Before that they remain surprisingly small as is often the case with African Saturniidae. In the third instar most of them turn from red just after molting into green just before the next molting, even though some remain light pinkish. When they are ready to pupate, they become more reddish and start wandering around. Move them to individual plastic containers lined with kitchen towels. Open the containers daily to get some fresh air in and clean if necessary. It can get a bit messy, especially during the first few days.