In Culture
This spectacular moth is considered one of the most impressive and beautiful Lepidoptera, rivalling almost any of the butterflies in brilliance of colouring and form. It is featured in most coffee table books on the Lepidoptera, and is much sought after by collectors. It is collected in the wild, and raised commercially for the international butterfly trade; its wings were used to make jewellery in the Victorian era. The Madagascan sunset moth appeared on a 6 maloti postage stamp in the Lesotho Postal Services Butterflies of Africa issue of 20 August 2007. Only one of the four species of host plants, Omphalea oppositifolia, is used to raise the moth commercially, mainly using plants collected in the wild, but also some cultivated for the purpose.
In Malagasy, lolo is polysemous for "butterfly" or "moth" and "soul", there is little doubt that this is because a chrysalis resembles a covered corpse and that the butterfly or moth emerges from it—like the soul from body of the dead. The Malagasy people believe the soul of the dead or of ancestors appears in the form of a Lepidopteran, and thus to attack it is to attack the ancestors.
Read more about this topic: Chrysiridia Rhipheus
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