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Arniocera auriguttata
About 25 mm body size.
Found during daytime, hanging on a twig about 40 cm above ground. (Sara inactive bushcamp)
I have not managed to find any specific information about this specimen.
Bayucca/Tina
Found these two photo's on iSpot SA which look the same as this one so I think A. auriguttata is correct.
http://www.ispot.org.za/species_dictiona...
I am going to postpone the dot-counting and leave the city for the wilderness... Ill be back in 24 hours :) I will count dots when I get back "home"!
Thrilling has always something exciting and telling jokes might relax a little bit, but I agree, the whole thing is depending on which side of the chair you are...
So, what about my suggestion?? Did you already ount the spots?
:))
I had no idea that ppl in your profession could be funny! I am not sure that the best thing to do when drilling someones teeth is to tell a joke... But perhaps that makes it more exiting for you :D
;-)...
I was just kidding...
Indeed there are many tricks for IDing leps, first step is always looking for key markings for family and looking for special markings like spots, lines, bands, margin of the wings etc. Concerning spots it is usually important to check size, location, relationship and distance to other spots, color etc. That's why I think yours might be Auriguttata. If you look at several pictures you will immediately notice, as it happens very often, a great variability within the same species. Sometimes I am lost as well, so we probably need your master for checking...
Haha! All I can say is that this "master" provided a new PN member with a lot if interesting information on "how to ID butterflies" in general. This happened 5 months ago....
And I dont want him to get to cocky about it being a master and everything, so it might be worth mentioning that since I am a generalist by nature, I am surrounded by masters of all kinds :P
Good morning Bayucca! I would not say that the spots are golden, they are more yellow.
I had some ideas for an ID, but as my master told me, count the spots... So I was lost. And now you tell me that the spots can be a bit different inbetwen individuals :)
I guess that what I am trying to say is "Thank you for yet an other ID" :D
Thyrididae (!!), Charideinae, Arniocera sp. and most probably Arniocera auriguttara, despite the common name not a Burnet Moth from Zygaenidae, but Thyrididae. Also quite variable with size and arrangement of spots. But I think your spots really appears to be golden, aren't they??
http://www.ispot.org.za/sites/default/fi...
http://www.ispot.org.za/sites/default/fi...
http://war.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paypay:Arn...
http://www.treknature.com/gallery/Africa...