Manduca occulta, Jalisco, Mexico, July 2003, courtesy of Jean Haxaire copyright.

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TAXONOMY: Family: Sphingidae, Latreille, 1802 Subfamily: Sphinginae, Latreille, [1802] Tribe: Sphingini, Latreille, 1802 Genus: Manduca Hubner, 1807 ........... Species: occulta Rothschild & Jordan, 1903

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DISTRIBUTION:

Th Occult Sphinx, Manduca occulta (Wing span: 4 1/8 - 4 3/8 inches (10.5 - 12.0 cm)), flies from
Panama; north through Central America and
Mexico;
Belize: Cayo, Toledo;
Nicaragua: Madriz, Jinotega, Matagalpa, Chinandega, Managua, Masaya, Granada, Chontales, Rio San Juan;
Costa Rica: Guanacaste, Puntarenas, Lemon, Carthage, Alajuela, Heredia, San Jose;
to southern Arizona, and rarely to southern Florida.

The specimen type locality is Vera Cruz, Mexico.

Manduca occulta can be differentiated from M. sexta which has 2/3 black, 1/3 white checkering on the forewing, while occulta has equal amounts of black and white checkering.

Manduca occulta male courtesy of Dan Janzen.

Manduca occulta, Nicaragua, courtesy of Michel Laguerre, id by Jean Haxaire.

FLIGHT TIMES:

Manduca occulta adults fly as strays into Florida in September. In Costa Rica moths fly as a single generation after the onset of the rainy season in May and June.

In Nicaragua, Michel Laguerre reports them on the wing in July-August and October.

ECLOSION:

Pupae probably wiggle to surface from subterranean chambers just prior to eclosion.

Manduca occulta female courtesy of Dan Janzen.

SCENTING AND MATING:

Females call in the males with a pheromone released from a gland at the tip of the abdomen. Adults nectar at flowers.

EGGS, LARVAE, PUPAE:

Larvae feed on plants in the nightshade family (Solanaceae): Cestrum glanduliferum, Cestrum racemosum, Solanum accrescens and Solanum hazenii are used in Costa Rica.

Larvae look much like Manduca dilucida.

The tongue loop is long like that of a small Manduca rustica.

Larvae are subject to parasitization by Drino rhoeo and Drino piceiventris of the Tachinidae family and by Microplitis espinachi and Meteorus congregatus of the Braconidae family.

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