Congrats, Susan!
I think the pink-spotted hawk moths are one of the prettiest sphinx moths!
Keep us posted about their progress!
Sherry

Thank you, MissSherry! Just goes to show you CAN build a habitat in the city jungle! LOL!

Will definitely let everyone know what happens. The cat photos I looked at are very pretty.

Susan

Wow! I am so jealous. The only sphingidae moth I have had here this summer is one little Hummingbird hawk moth. And that was the first one in a couple years. I really would like to attract some more. Sigh.
Cheers,
Elisabeth

Elisabeth, when I first started my quest for sphingidae and its various tribes, I knew NOTHING! I found out about the Tomato Hornworm and Tobacco Hornworm from TomatoWorm, who has posted here recently. I raised both for a couple of years, growing tomatoes just for them, and then I planted a Datura, which works well for both, too.

I discovered that the vine that covered a portion of my fence and the neighbors, was Virginia Creeper. So what, I thought, just another vine that is pretty in springtime and ratty looking by the time summer ends. I really didn't know much about it.

One day I was cleaning up around the vine and found a large caterpillar on it. Came to find out it was a Eumorpha achemon. From then on I was hooked. I had most of the larval host plants I have found cats on already in the yard. I live in an older district in OKC, with many mature trees, and lots of "bird planted" shrubs, vines, and trees, too.

I began looking at research on the sphinx moths found in Oklahoma, and realized I could raise a number of them. I have used, used, and used Bill Oehlke's website to find out the sphinx moths that populate Oklahoma and their hosts. I started checking out many of the trees and vines in the yard, such as Honeysuckle, Elm, Virginia Creeper (who knew it hosted so many species?), Pecan, Trumpet Vine, Ipomoea, which reseeded annually. From there, I just started checking out the plants, looking for evidence of caterpillars, e.g., frass, chewed leaves, etc.

Some of the cats I've found have been purely by accident. TomatoWorm also taught me what the Snowberry Clearwing cats looked like, and how to successfully raise many of the sphinx. "Hornworm" is kind of a general term to describe sphinx cats, but there are a number of species that lose the horn in later instars, and have a "button-like" spot on the rear in place of the horn. The Eumorphas, for example, and the little Erinnyis obscura, which has a very reduced horn in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th instars of growth.

I can't tell you how it's done, other than to just search the known plants available in your location and you WILL eventually find them. I find late spring, May to June, and late summer, August to early September, to be the best times in my garden to find them.

Many of my finds have been purely accidental. For instance, I had no clue that the Erinnyis obscura larvae fed on Cynanchum laeve. I had a heck of a time finding good photos of the larvae, finally hooking up to Dan Jantzen's website for photos.

The Elm Sphinx, or Four-Horned Sphinx, I found while walking under some Elm trees. It was just barely hanging on to a limb, and it was huge! Really cool looking cat.

Still on my list is Hyles lineata, or White-lined Sphinx. It is the most common one found in Oklahoma, and yet I have not been able to either find or attract one to the garden! Go figure!

So check out your trees, shrubs, vines, and other things that are native (especially). I think you guys get many more species that we do in Oklahoma. There are a lot of Northern ones. I'll attach a link to Bill's site for Ohio sphinx.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Ohio Sphinx

I used to find pink-spotteds in the late 1960's and early 1970's, in Arlington, Texas. Today, I doubt one can find anything but an occasional white-lined these days, over there. I can still remember as late as 1978, seeing up to a dozen or so lineatas, at a time, nectaring on a neighbor's Mimosa [silk] tree.

Ah...the good old days. Every weeping willow, sycamore, non live oak, ash, redbud and wisteria throughout the Metroplex, had Io's, too. I used to be so amazed by the plethora of noctuids, many with fan-shaped wings and most interesting bark-matching patterns, on the porch walls, drawn to the light, as my house was situated near a huge, undeveloped field in the sixties and seventies. I will never forget my neighbor calling me over to retrieve a beautiful Luna one time. It laid eggs that never hatched.

I sure hope and pray your cingulatas are not just a one-time thing, but indicative of continued residence.

So do I, TW! But this is the 1st time I have found them here and I've been growing Ipomoeas, one species or another, since I've been here. Doesn't mean I haven't overlooked them in the past, or that they haven't been food for something else before reaching larval maturity. But, I am pretty "tuned in" to the presence of sphinx larvae nowadays.

Living in an urban setting (I'm only about 5 miles from downtown proper OKC), you would think I would see very few at all. But, I think this old, established neighborhood, attracts quite a few of the various species.

Susan

Susan, I must admit, that during the past 4 years, I was out of touch with any collecting/rearing. You did better than I did, finding an elm sphinx! I did rear some Lunas 2 years ago, and found a dead sphinx egg on some of the pecan leaves, which told me at least walnut sphinx are in Kay County. Never saw any. Neodesha is full of Hagan's sphinx, Achemons and Myrons, though.

I sure hate missing your true tomato worms, though. For my namesake, I've got to get my hands on some stock for them and rear/release hear too, to give the sextas a run for their money.

Walnut sphinx is plentiful here. I find them every year, lots of them, on the pecan tree saplings that persist on growing in the yard. I love that persistence!

I haven't found a M. quinquemaculata in years now. I only have only found the M. sextas for the last several years. I think they are pretty rare in my location now. I did find a little sexta on a tomato plant yesterday, but did not bring it in to raise. I have raised a lot of them. Time has prevented me from doing much this year, with my daughter's illness. I have been at her house for 12 hours a day during the week. I chose to bring in the A. cingulatas because I have not raised them yet, and I can grab some food on the way out the door, and clean out the container in the evenings when I get home.

Anyway, it does seem that the sextas far outnumber the quinquemaculatas. I'm hoping this trend does not continue.

Susan

I haven't seen any pink-spotted hawkmoths this year, but then I didn't plant any moonflowers. I'll have to do that next year!
They have such a long proboscis! -
{{gwi:510545}}

Sherry

While commercial tomato farmers [mostly Florida] and tobacco farmers have to literally spray for sextas, lest they lose a crop, this species is rapidly declining in Oklahoma, period. I've asked dozens of gardeners who testify they have NOT even seen a single "tomato worm" in the past 7-10 years! I ask every one if they find it a little strange, if not even disturbing they DON'T. The answers are usually interesting. Many feel the lack of hornworms is an indication of things not right, along with the disappearnce of most honeybees. Yet, not a one of their host plants have so far, been genetically altered.

Again, more education in the name of conserving America's leps and even hornworms in the heartland, where the same imported European fly which successfully extirpated some 33 species of native Saturniidae, is driving Manducas [and no telling what else] from central Oklahoma!

My 13 sextas are in pupa, now. I will never know the disease that took the life of an early L5 cat, but not a one of mine, had flies or braconids. I'm now in braconid country, but they mainly work on the catalpa hornworms.

Thanks Susan! Good info. I have virginia creeper that likes to take over my yard. I have half-heartedly checked it once in a while and haven't found anything. I have lots of honeysuckle even the native one. I have seen one hummingbird hawkmoth in the last two years and that was just this week. Never found a caterpillar. I have tons and tons of honeyvine. I have found monarchs on it but not much else. I found one tobacco hornworm and it was parasitized. I think there just are not enough nectar plants for a lot of the long tounged critters in my suburban neighborhood. :(

Maybe if I plant some daturas and other night blooming things I could have some more luck. We recently had our pool filled in. The fill brought some Jimson weed and I have been eagerly checking it. Nothing there so far.

I think I will go turn on the porch light and see what I find.

You know I have enough obsessions already....what is one more?

-Elisabeth