African Wildlife & Environment Issue 85

GARDENING FOR BIODIVERSITY

They are masters at raiding bee hives for honey, seemingly without ill effect other than perhaps a disgruntled beekeeper. When handled they can squeak, a sound made through the proboscis and believed to mimic the queen bee, thus protecting the moth from worker bees. The larvae are green, yellow or brown with oblique black stripes and a stubby, kinked, pimply tail. In some forms there are blue stripes on the sides of the body. The stout black pupa is formed in an

her two sisters had, in turn, spun it and determined its length. These moths, the female of which is of stouter build than the male, fly in the warmer months from dusk through the night and are frequently attracted to lights. Tecomaria capensis is a larval food-plant of the Death’s Head Hawk Moth Acherontia atropos which is often seen on honeycombs (Photograph: S Woodhall)

earthen cell within the soil. Some of the other larvae which eat T. capensis are those of the attractive Tri-coloured Tiger Moth Rhodogastria amasis which, when threatened, curls up exposing its bright red body, and those of the strangely named Edible Monkey Striphnopteryx edulis . However, it is recommended that you leave the eating of this moth and its hairy caterpillar to the birds!

The Tri-coloured Tiger Moth Rhodogastria amasis with its red body (Photograph: S Woodhall)

T. capensis is also the larval food-plant of a few butterflies, including the Common Zebra Blue Leptotes pirithous . Believe it or not, even butterflies change names! This little one was widely known as Leptotes telicanus , but the earlier name of pirithous has now been accepted. The reason is that the first,

The caterpillar (larva) of the Death’s Head Hawk Moth Acherontia atropos (Photograph: S Woodhall)

51 | African Wildlife & Environment | Issue 85 (2024)