Manduca rustica rustica female courtesy of David Liebman.

This site has been created by Bill Oehlke at oehlkew@islandtelecom.com
Comments, suggestions and/or additional information are welcomed by Bill.

TAXONOMY: Family: Sphingidae, Latreille, 1802 Subfamily: Sphinginae, Latreille, [1802] Tribe: Sphingini, Latreille, 1802 Genus: Manduca Hubner, [1807] ........... Species: rustica rustica (Fabricius, 1775)

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DISTRIBUTION:

The Rustic Sphinx, Manduca rustica rustica (Wing span: 3 7/16 - 5 15/16 inches (8.7 - 15 cm)), flies in warm temperate, subtropical, and tropical forests and second growth woodlands from Virginia to south Florida, west to Arkansas, Texas, southern New Mexico, Arizona, and southern California and Puerto Rico and Cuba, and then further south through Central America to Brazil: Mato Grosso (JvB), Para, Roraima; Bolivia and Uruguay. This species occasionally strays to Maine, Massachusetts, and New York. I never saw one in New Jersey.

In Central America it has been reported in the following locations:
Mexico;
Belize: Corozol, Cayo, Stann Creek, Toledo;
Nicaragua: Chinandega, Leon, Managua, Masaya, Granada, Rivas, Chontales, Zelaya, Rio San Juan;
Guatemala:
Costa Rica: Guanacaste, Puntarenas, Alajuela, San Jose, Lemon, Heredia;
Panama.

The abdomen of the adult moth has three pairs of yellow spots. The upperside of the forewing is yellowish brown to deep chocolate brown with a dusting of white scales and zigzagged black and white lines.

Manduca rustica female, courtesy of Hubert Mayer.

FLIGHT TIMES:

Manduca rustica rustica adults fly as several broods from May-October in Louisiana. There are two broods from July-November in the rest of the northern range. In Costa Rica moths have been seen every month of the year with the biggest flight in May June.

In Bolivia January-February-March-April, June, October and December with both males and females coming to lights. Johan van't Bosch reports a September flight in Mato Grosso, Brazil.

Manduca rustica, on moonflower, San Antonio, Texas,
November 12, 2003, courtesy of Jay Chapman.

ECLOSION:

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

Manduca rustica rustica 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 begin feeding from deep-throated flowers including moonflower (Calonyction aculeatum) and petunia (Petunia species) late at night, around 10 P.M.

EGGS, LARVAE, PUPAE:

Larvae feed on fringe tree (Chionanthus virginicus) and jasmine (Jasminum species) in the olive family (Oleaceae), and on bushy matgrass (Lippia alba) and Aloysia wrightii in the vervain family (Verbenaceae), and on knockaway (Ehretia anacua) in the borage family (Boraginaceae), and on Bignonia species like Desert willow (Chilopsis linearis) in the Bignoniaceae family.

"Manduca rustica, Tucson, Arizona, November, on desert willow, David Bygott

Larvae have also been reported on Tecoma stans, Callicarpa americana, Fraxinus, Helianthus annuus, Heliotropium, Lagerstroemia indica, Lantana camara, Ligustrum japonicum, Ligustrum ovalifolium, Plumeria acuminata, Plumeria alba, Ligustrum vulgare, Sesamum indicum, Syringa vulgaris, Trichostema dichotomum, Annona squamosa, Gossypium herbaceum and Himatanthus sucuuba.

The caterpillar has numerous white nodules on top of the thorax and seven pairs of oblique, blue-gray stripes along the side of the body. The horn is white at the base and blue-gray at the tip. Host plants also include Crossvine, bignonias, and various members of the forget-me-not and vervain families. Alice Gilliland reports one feeding on gardenia in Chapel Hill, Orange County, North Carolina.

Larvae pupate on their backs in subterranean chambers. Larvae and pupa images courtesy of Bruce Walsh.

Heavily parasitized Manduca rustica, Florida,
courtesy of Leroy Simon.

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