Silkmoths and more: Trichopisthia igneotincta

Trichopisthia igneotincta is the smaller of the two species in this African genus. It's a fairly common species, widely distributed in pretty much the entire south half of the continent from Congo (RDC) and Tanzania south into South Africa. The beautiful copper brown males have a wingspan around four centimeter. The females are larger with a wingspan up to six centimeter and are a much lighter more sand color. The moths matching these caterpillars are in the previous post and are not typical for the species. Don't expect large caterpillars with a species this size. Fully grown they reach six centimeter or at best almost seven for a large female. It's a difficult species to rear. I only managed to keep two of them alive on Myrtus, so I'm not going to give any tips here. What I did was obviously not the best thing to do. I hope to have some fresh stock later this year, so that I can give it another try. It's a slow grower that hatched January 20th and pupated the first week of April. But then again, this might have been of the improper rearing conditions. Anyway, the pupal stage was short. Both females emerged within less then three weeks.