The stout bodied Nessus Sphinx (Wing span: 1 7/16 - 2 3/16 inches (3.7 - 5.5 cm); 16 mm proboscis) is sparsely distributed throughout the eastern 3/4 of the United States and Canada from Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Maine south to southern Florida; west to Wisconsin, Nebraska, Colorado, and Texas.

The adult, which flies during the day and at dusk, has two bright yellow bands on the tufted abdomin. At rest, dark red-brown upperwings hide the red-orange median band and yellow spot of the hindwings; in some moths the median band may be very pale or almost absent.

On May 31, 1999, after an exceptionally warm early May, I took a female Nessus sphinx nectaring on blackberry blossoms at 6:30 pm in Montague, Prince Edward Island. The female was at first placed in a brown paper grocery bag where she did not ovaposit.

Then I fed her a 10% sugar/honey water solution and placed her in an enclosure consisting of one six gallon clear plastic tub inverted over another with a young Virginia creeper vine growing from a February cutting. I also placed a grape cutting (just in water) and some blackberry blossoms in the enclosure.

Daily I hand-fed the female a ten percent sugar-water solution with a bit of dissolved honey, and during the next five or six days she deposited approximately 85 ova, predominantly on creeper but some on grape and even a few on blackberry foliage.

In the above scan, shiny traces of emerged ova remain, and decay has already set in around a hole nibbled from leaf underside.

Ova were always deposited on underside of foliage and larvae began emerging 8 days later under fairly constant 68-72 temperature.

Cuttings of creeper were taken and larvae were easily removed from old foliage with fingers. Larvae seemed content to eat wilted leaves rather than move to fresh food. Rearing was done in several of the six gallon containers and growth was quite rapid. To the right, fourth instar floridensis one month ex ova.

By July 12, larvae had entered final moult and colour change from yellow-green to light brown was rather striking. The larvae would feed voraciously at night and hide along the brown creeper stems by day. From New York northward there is but a single brood from April til July. Double brooding (March-May and July-September) starts in coastal South Carolina, and there are as many as six broods in Florida and Louisiana from February-September.

Favorite nectar sources for the adults, which are frequently found in forest clearings, streamsides, and in the suburbs where larval hosts have been introduced, are lilac (Syringa vulgaris), herbrobert (Geranium robertianum), beauty bush (Kolkwitzia amabilis), mock orange (Philadelphus coronarius), and Phlox.

Planting any of the above in proximity to creeper or grape will afford this species a welcome habitat.

In additon to Virginia creeper larvae accept Grape (Vitis), ampelopsis (Ampelopsis), and cayenne pepper (Capsicum).

On July 18 a few of the larvae left the foliage and became quite moist as they crawled along bottoms of the containers looking for soft earth in which to pupate.

Typically these larvae pupate in shallow underground chambers. I simply removed them to "pupation buckets", empty five gallon buckets with several layers of paper towels along the bottom. Buckets were kept covered, warm, and in a dark place and pupations began on July 22.Pupae are at first quite soft and light in colour and should not be handled for several days until shell has hardened and darker colour has prevailed. For overwintering, here in the north, pupae will be stored in a loosely lidded box in the refrigerator crisper.

Please visit other websites maintained by
Bill Oehlke oehlkew@islandtelecom.com
Box 476, Peardon Road
Montague, Prince Edward Island
Canada C0A 1R0.

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