Silkmoths and more: Aurivillius oberthuri

A lot of pictures today, simply because this probably is the very first time that someone has photographed all the caterpillar stages. Oberthuri is one of the less well known members of the African Aurivillius genus. It is also one of the larger members. I caught the female myself a week before Christmas in the Dzalanyama Forest in Malawi. Finding food plants for African Saturnids can be quite hard in the middle of the winter, but these settled immediately on a somewhat surprising plant, namely rock rose (Cistus). I have several different cultivars growing in pots. The first three instars were raised in plastic containers on cut leaves. Young Aurivillius caterpillars are way too small to put on living plants right away. Even at the start of the fourth instar the larvae are still fairly small, but gaining rapidly in size form here on. Large enough to put them on a potted plant, which was placed in a transparent, large, plastic container covered with a mesh sheet in my living room (what can I say, it is the warmest part of the house). This seemed a very good way to breed this species. Almost no losses, very different from the other food plants I tried. Hoheria sexstylosa is accepted, however the mortality is above ninety percent. Roses (Rosa canina) were somewhat better, still a seventy percent loss (although this may have had something to do with the poor quality of the leaves in the middle of the winter, roses are only semi deciduous in very mild winters like this year). It takes around seven weeks before they are fully grown. When they change color and start to search for a place to pupate, move them to small individual plastic containers lined with kitchen towels. Open once a day until the caterpillars have pupated to check on them and to replace the towels when they get too moist and dirty.