Raising a pandora sphinx moth

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MarkSturtevant
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Location: Michigan, U.S.A.
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Raising a pandora sphinx moth

Post by MarkSturtevant »

Last summer I stumbled upon a large and very beautiful caterpillar that I had not seen before. It was the larva of the pandora sphinx moth (Eudorpha pandorus) on virginia creeper vine that commonly grows on trees. Unlike most sphinx moth caterpillars, these don't have a horn on their rear end. Instead, they have a hard "button" that looks like an eye. Anyway, here is the caterpillar. For scale, its a bit larger than your thumb.
ImagePandora sphinx moth caterpillar by Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr
ImagePandora sphinx moth caterpillar by Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr

Members of this family pupate underground. So when it was time I put it into a bucket of dirt in the basement. Later, I placed the pupa in a container in the refrigerator, and there it stayed for several months until the weather warmed.
ImagePandora sphinx moth pupa by Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr

Once it was time to move things along, the pupa was kept in a bowl of dirt in a bug cage, and I checked on it every morning. The big day came in June when a large and beautiful moth was in the bug cage, and here it is! Fortunately I got to it before it was inclined to fly, so photographing was easy.
ImagePandora sphinx moth by Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr

The same day, I put the moth deep into the woods in a well sheltered spot near where I had found the caterpillar.

Here's that "button" on the rear end. Thanks for looking!
ImagePandora sphinx moth caterpillar by Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr
Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters

wwheeler48
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Location: Seattle, WA, USA

Re: Raising a pandora sphinx moth

Post by wwheeler48 »

What a great story, beautiful animal in several stages. Well done. :)

rjlittlefield
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Re: Raising a pandora sphinx moth

Post by rjlittlefield »

Beautiful in every way -- thanks!

--Rik

Guppy
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Re: Raising a pandora sphinx moth

Post by Guppy »

Hello Mark

Beautiful and interesting.
I like it very much!

Kurt

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