Manduca rustica rustica

Manduca rustica rustica
man-DOO-kuhMruh-STICK-kuh
Rustic Sphinx
(Fabricius, 1775) Sphinx

Manduca rustica fifth instar, Cape Coral, Lee County, Florida,
feeding on golden dewdrop (Duranta erecta),
October 9, 2010, courtesy of Elizabeth Gillen.

Elizabeth writes, "We live in Cape Coral, Lee County Florida. We found this caterpillar (see attached photos) on one of our golden dewdrop while pruning over the weekend. This afternoon we checked the other dewdrops in our yard and found several more! We have not found them on our other plants, but each golden dew drop had at least one (maybe more, as they are hard to see). I am guessing it to be the larvae for the rustic sphinx moth. Can you confirm this? Feel free to add it to your website if you like. It sure is fun to see what critters make themselves at home in our backyard! Thanks!"

Yes, those are beautiful images of Manduca rustica, and golden dewdrop (Duranta erecta) is a "newly" reported foodplant for them. The larvae have been found on a great variety of hosts.

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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