''Gynanisa maja'', the speckled emperor or chipumi, is a

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

of the family

Saturniidae Saturniidae, commonly known as saturniids, is a family of Lepidoptera with an estimated 2,300 described species. The family contains some of the largest species of moths in the world. Notable members include the emperor moths, royal moths, and gi ...

. The species was first described by

Johann Christoph Friedrich Klug Johann Christoph Friedrich Klug (5 May 1775, in Berlin – 3 February 1856, in Berlin), was a German entomologist. He described the butterflies and some other insects of Upper Egypt and Arabia in Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg and Wilhelm Friedr ...

in 1836. It is known from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

to eastern Africa (up to

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

and

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

). ''Gynanisa nigra'' is just a darker form and not a distinct species. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan o ...

is 105–113 mm. Adults are on wing from late December to early February. Larvae have been recorded on '' Acacia erioloba'', '' Acacia karroo'', '' Acacia mollissima'', '' Berlinia paniculata'', '' Brachystegia venosa'', '' Cassia'', ''

Colophospermum mopane ''Colophospermum mopane'', commonly called mopane, mopani, balsam tree, butterfly tree, or turpentine tree, is a tree in the legume family ( Fabaceae), that grows in hot, dry, low-lying areas, in elevation, in the far northern parts of southern ...

'', '' Elephantorrhiza burchelli'', ''

Julbernardia ''Julbernardia'' is a genus of plants in the family Fabaceae. There are eight species found in tropical Africa. They are medium-sized trees. Species accepted by the Plants of the World Online as of February 2021: *'' Julbernardia baumii'' *' ...

'', ''

Laburnum ''Laburnum'', sometimes called golden chain or golden rain, is a genus of two species of small trees in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae. The species are '' Laburnum anagyroides''—common laburnum and '' Laburnum alpinum''� ...

'', '' Peltophorum'', ''

Prunus persica ''Prunus'' is a genus of trees and shrubs, which includes (among many others) the fruits plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, and almonds. Native to the North American temperate regions, the neotropics of South America, and the ...

'', ''

Pterocarpus ''Pterocarpus'' is a pantropical genus of trees in the family Fabaceae. It belongs to the subfamily Faboideae, and was recently assigned to the informal monophyletic ''Pterocarpus'' clade within the Dalbergieae. Most species of ''Pterocarp ...

'', ''

Quercus gambelii ''Quercus gambelii'', with the common name Gambel oak, is a deciduous small tree or large shrub that is widespread in the foothills and lower mountains of western North America. It is also regionally called scrub oak, oak brush, and white oak. ...

'', ''

Quercus robur ''Quercus robur'', commonly known as common oak, pedunculate oak, European oak or English oak, is a species of flowering plant in the beech and oak family, Fagaceae. It is a large tree, native to most of Europe west of the Caucasus. It is widel ...

'', '' Quercus turneri'', ''

Robinia pseudoacacia ''Robinia pseudoacacia'', commonly known in its native territory as black locust, is a medium-sized hardwood deciduous tree, belonging to the tribe Robinieae of the legume family Fabaceae. It is endemic to a few small areas of the United States, ...

'' and ''

Schotia ''Schotia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae. It belongs to the subfamily Detarioideae. It occurs in southern Africa. The genus was named for Richard van der Schot by Jacquin who was the director of the Imperial Ga ...

''. Early

instar An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'', "form", "likeness") is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, between each moult (''ecdysis''), until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to grow or ...

larvae are

gregarious Sociality is the degree to which individuals in an animal population tend to associate in social groups (gregariousness) and form cooperative societies. Sociality is a survival response to evolutionary pressures. For example, when a mother wasp ...

. They have a reddish-black colour. As they develop, they become solitary feeders, hiding on the underside of leaf stems and twigs. These later instars are green with silver spines. Fully grown larvae descend from the host plant to pupate in deep underground chambers. The larvae serve as an important human food source. See

Entomophagy Entomophagy (, from Greek ἔντομον ', 'insect', and φαγεῖν ', 'to eat') is the practice of eating insects. An alternative term is insectivory. Terms for organisms that practice entomophagy are ''entomophage'' and ''insectivore' ...

References

Saturniinae Moths of Africa Moths described in 1836 Taxa named by Johann Christoph Friedrich Klug {{Saturniidae-stub