Alpenus maculosa (Stoll, [1781])

Stoll, C. [1781]. In: Cramer, P., De Uitlandsche Kapellen voorkomende in de
drie Waereld-Deelen Asia, Africa en America, vol. 4: p. 156, pl. 370, fig. B.
Described in the genus Phalaena (Bombyx). Translated from the Dutch original
(the work also carries a parallel French text).

Fig. B. Maculosa. Has plumose antennae and a short proboscis; the whole body
is white beneath, with black dots on the abdomen; the wings have the same
white ground colour, but the black spots of the upper wings are not so
strongly visible there as on the upper side. She can be placed among the
Silk-spinners. Her native country is on the coast of Africa, at Sierra
Leone.

Hampson, G. F. (1901). Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalaenae in the British
Museum, vol. 3: pp. 276-277. As Diacrisia maculosa.

1730. Diacrisia maculosa.

Bombyx maculosa, Stoll, Pap. Exot. iv. pl. 370, B (1781); Kirby, Cat. Het.
p. 238.
Ecpantheria assimilis, Hubn. Verz. p. 183 (1827).
Alpenus aequalis, Wlk. iii. 686 (1855); Kirby, Cat. Het. p. 238.
Ecpantheria indeterminata, Wlk. iii. 697 (1855).
Halesidota macularia, Wlk. xxxi. 314 (1864).
Spilosoma eyralpenus, Plotz, Stett. ent. Zeit. xli. p. 83 (1880); Kirby, Cat.
Het. p. 238.
Spilosoma investigatorum, Karsch, Werther, Deutsch-O.-Africa, p. 313 (1898).

Yellowish white; palpi, lower part of frons, and antennae black; vertex of
head sometimes with black point; tegulae with pair of black points, patagia
with two pairs; thorax with dorsal black stripe; fore coxae and femora above
orange, tibiae and tarsi banded with black; abdomen orange above except at
base and extremity, a dorsal series of black bars and lateral and sublateral
series of points. Fore wing with the retinaculum of male black; points at
base; subbasal, antemedial, medial, postmedial, and subterminal irregular
series of grey-centred black spots, the first two angled outwards below
median nervure, the 3rd on median nervure, the 4th excurved from below costa
to vein 3, round spots in angles of cell; some spots from costa to vein 4
before the subterminal series; a series of small black spots on termen and
cilia. Hind wing usually with discoidal spot and sometimes two to four
subterminal spots.

Ab. 1. aequalis. Fore wing with the spots larger and more conjoined; hind
wing with the spots larger.

Ab. 2. investigatorum. Fore wing with the spots not centred with grey: (a)
the spots larger, (b) the spots small.

Hab. Sierra Leone (Foxcroft, Mitford), 1 ♂, 6 ♀, types aequalis,
indeterminata, and macularia; Old Calabar (Cockburn), 1 ♀; Ashanti (R.
Brooking), 1 ♀; Nigeria, Onitsha; Cameroons (Rutherford), 1 ♀; Congo
(Curror), 1 ♀; Br. E. Africa, Wadelai (Emin Pasha), 1 ♀, Victoria Nyanza
(Hannington), 1 ♀, Takaungu, Machakos (Crawshay), 4 ♂; Br. C. Africa, Fwambo
(Carson), 1 ♂; Mashonaland, Salisbury (Marshall), 7 ♂, 3 ♀. Exp., ♂ 42-48,
♀ 48-54 millim.

Gaede, M. (1926). Spilosoma. In: Seitz, A. (ed.), The Macrolepidoptera of
the World, vol. 14, The African Bombyces and Sphinges: p. 96, pl. 12 f. As
Spilosoma maculosa.

S. maculosa Stoll (= assimilis Hbn., indeterminata Wkr., macularia Wkr.,
eyralpenus Plotz) (12 f). Head and thorax yellowish-white with black dots.
Abdomen orange with black dorsal spots, at the beginning and end white.
Forewing white or yellowish-white, rather uniformly covered with black rings
filled up with grey. Hindwing white with a blackish spot at the cross-vein
and some before the margin. -- aequalis Wkr. has oblong, somewhat confluent
spots on the forewing. 36 to 44 mm. Everywhere in West, Central, and East
Africa.