Rippled Hawkmoth

Description:

Sphingidae; Macroglossinae; Macroglossini; Eupanacra; Eupanacra variegata (Rothschild, 189). Pic #1. On Nov 25 (I’ll call it Day 1), this larva was spotted on an Elephant’s Ear Plant (Caladium sp.) in our backyard. For reasons mentioned in Notes below, I decided to remove it. The best solution I could think of was to put it in an old home-made cage which I had previously used for captive rearing Hawkmoths. I was extremely lucky with this larva because I did not know the species and was not sure what to use to feed it. So, I put a few leaves from various Caladium spp. In the cage. The next morning when I checked on it, nothing had been eaten and it was starting to pupate. Pic #2. I cannot show daily progress pictures here (the limit is 6 photos). So, this one was taken on Day 9. The larva was well into its pupation and all was well. Since I did not know the species, I did not know the pupation period, but I was expecting it to be about 15 or 16 days. Pic #3. 6:00 a.m. on Day 19, well past my estimated number of days, but everything looked O.K. There had been some gradual darkening of the Pupa in recent days and that seemed normal enough. Pic #4. Day 19, around 8:30 p.m. I noticed that part of the pupal case had opened slightly – the cover of the left eye was open and the moth was peeping out of the little crack. I knew that the eclosion could happen soon. So, I was thinking (because of past experience), here comes a night of checking progress every hour. When a Hawkmoth ecloses (emerges), it has to find a position to let its wings hang straight down until they become inflated and strong. This usually takes around one or two hours. Pic #5 When I checked at 9:50 p.m. I was surprised and delighted to see the moth climbing around on the plastic mesh of the cage, looking for a way out. It was rapidly oscillating its wings to make sure they were ready for flight. Pic #6. My wife gently put her finger in front of the moth and, as Hawkmoths usually do, it stepped onto her finger so that she could safely remove it from the cage. Then I was able to take some final pictures before it flew off into the night. A happy moment.

Habitat:

This larva was spotted on a young Caladium sp. pot plant in our backyard.

Notes:

The larva had to be removed for two reasons; (a) My wife is a Caladium enthusiast and this particular sp. with its unusual leaf pattern and colour was difficult to find. The larva had consumed almost all of the leaves and the plant was in danger of dying. (b) A cane Toad had taken up residence in the flowerpot and probably had its eye on the larva for a snack. Additonal information - https://sphingidae.myspecies.info/taxono... Some pictures - https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/1264999...