The rainy season in Southern Africa brings vital changes, as it ensures food for the following year and provides water both for human consumption and for the generation of electricity that must last throughout the year. The rains are also vital for wild animals that depend on the availability of water to survive.
Many living things at this latitude have mechanisms to survive prolonged drought and high temperatures. Depending on the species, those that do not migrate remain in a state of quiescence or estivation – summer diapause – until conditions change with the arrival of the rains. Then, their biological clock “wakes up” them and they appear to take advantage of that time of abundance.
In this way, turtles, chameleons, lizards, millipedes, beetles and termites emerge as if by miracle from the depths of the earth. Many plant pests also appear at this time and it is a time of great activity for locusts and caterpillars of all kinds. Among the latter there are many as spectacular as harmful.
One of the most striking is the skull sphinx or death sphinx moth ( Acherontia atropos ), whose name describes the drawing on the back of the thorax that resembles a human skull.
This moth, native to tropical Africa, periodically migrates to Europe, sometimes reaching the Canary Islands.
With a considerable size, 9-12 cm in females, this sphinx emits a high-pitched defensive buzz when disturbed or attacked by predators , as do the other two Acherontia species, A. styx and A. lachessis that inhabit Asia.
The skull sphinx moth can have several generations per year or estivar in the pupal stage, depending on the geographic location and environmental conditions. The moth lays eggs individually under the leaves of plants of the Solanaceae family, tobacco, potatoes and the like.
The green larvae that darken with age are robust and have a horn on the back. In the final stage, the larvae are considerably enlarged, reaching 120–130 mm.
In this final stage, after four molts it does not move much anymore, dedicating itself to eating a lot until it is time to pupate when it buries between 150-450 mm and creates a chamber for this purpose. The pupa is dark brown, smooth and shiny with the proboscis fused to the body.
When they finally emerge, the moths are large, with a wingspan of 90 to 130 mm and sexually dimorphic. Both the last instar and the adult moth rattle their jaws and may even bite if threatened . In addition, they are considered to be the fastest moths on the planet, as they can reach about 50 kilometers per hour, and they are also capable of hovering like hummingbirds to feed on nectar.
Another interesting fact: moths raid bee hives to steal honey. Although its squeaks were believed to mimic those emitted by the queen bee, and that the pattern on its thorax resembled the “faces” of bees, more recent information suggests that the moth has a bee-like odor and therefore no one bothers her when she makes her forays to get the precious delicacy.
These beautiful moths are associated with bad luck and death. The entomologist Moses Harris said of her in 1840: “Flying in the rooms at night sometimes extinguishes the light, announcing war, pestilence, famine, death to man and beast.”
This moth also appears in the book “Dracula” by Bram Stoker and was mentioned by both Thomas Hardy and John Keats in their writings and poems. In “The Silence of the Lambs” (by Thomas Harris), the killer places pupae of A. styx in the throats of his victims.
Julio de Castro is a veterinarian and a Doctor in Parasitology. He has worked for FAO for 25 years and now lives in Zimbabwe. Write about her experiences in Africa on the blog A Bushsnob in wild Africa
