Nudaurelia cytherea
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
Nudaurelia cytherea, also called the pine tree emperor moth or Christmas caterpillar due to its festive colouration, is a southern African member of the family Saturniidae. The family has large edible caterpillars which are an important source of protein for the Bantu peoples of southern Africa. The genus Nudaurelia is closely related to Gonimbrasia and Imbrasia. The species was first described by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1775.
The larva has a wide-ranging taste in food plants, and readily added the needles of introduced pines to its diet, causing widespread defoliation in South African plantations in the 1930s, especially in the Lebanon and Franschhoek plantations of the Western Cape. The pines included Pinus canariensis, P. halepensis, P. radiata, P. longifolia, P. muricata and P. pinaster. Other exotic species included Acacia mollissima, Cupressus macrocarpa, Eucalyptus cladocalyx, E. diversicolor, E. globulus, E. ovata, E. paniculata, E. pilularis, Liriodendron tulipifera, apple, guava and quince. Its food plants before the introduction of exotic species had included Euclea species, Rapanea melanophloeos, Protea repens, Rhus angustifolia, Watsonia species and Myrica cordifolia - Pinus radiata and Rhus angustifolia being most sought after, with feeding migrations to other species being only incidental.
Eggs and caterpillars are sought out by a variety of hymenopteran parasitoids such as Hockeria crassa, Hockeria nudaureliae, Pediobius species, Anastatus species and Mesocomys pulchriceps, while the larvae are infected naturally by at least five distinct virus species, including Nudaurelia β virus, producing fairly regular epizootics. Insect viruses have long been valued as biological control agents, since they have few negative effects on ecosystems compared with chemical pesticides. Their most important quality is that they require no follow-up or management, while their host specificity is a great advantage over most chemical pesticides which are not. Other mammalian controlling factors are baboons, feral pigs and porcupines, all of which relish the larvae, pupae and moths. Pigs were introduced to Western Cape pine plantations by the Forestry Department in the 1930s, and proved to be a cheap and effective control measure, their acute sense of smell enabling them to easily detect pupae under the soil surface. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | De Hoop Nature Reserve | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 2 | West Coast National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 3 | Garden Route National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 4 | Table Mountain National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cape Town | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Pine Emperor sighting in Table Mountain National Park on a given day, based on 50 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 92nd most-seen of the 344 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April–May and September–November
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Pine Emperor in Table Mountain National Park on a given day, against under 5% in June–August and December–March, the lowest months.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Pine Emperor sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
4th of 4
Of the 4 parks where we can rate Pine Emperor sightings, Table Mountain National Park ranks 4th at about 10%. The best odds are in De Hoop Nature Reserve (South Africa, about 20%), West Coast National Park (South Africa, about 20%) and Garden Route National Park (South Africa, about 10%).
Same order: Lepidoptera
The closest relatives of the Pine Emperor that you can see in Table Mountain National Park (order Lepidoptera, Butterflies and Moths) are Garden Acraea (about 30%), Cape Autumn Widow (about 20%) and Cape Lappet (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Pine Emperor is recorded against all the insects logged in Table Mountain National Park (50 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
