AMPHION FLORIDENSIS, THE NESSUS SPHINX
Amphion floridensis moth courtesy of Bill Oehlke.
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
Genus: Amphion (Hubner, 1819)
Species: floridensis (B.P. Clark, 1920)...........
|
MIDI MUSIC
It's a Wonderful World
copyright C. Odenkirk
ON.OFF
|
Amphion floridensis, the stout bodied Nessus Sphinx (Wing span: 1 7/16 - 2 3/16 inches
(3.7 - 5.5 cm))
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 Nessus sphinx, 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 Amphion floridensis 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 (16 mm proboscis) 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
oviposit.
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 eggs, predominantly on creeper but some on grape and even a few on blackberry foliage.
| In the above scan, shiny traces of emerged eggs remain, and decay has already
set in around a hole nibbled from leaf underside.
|
Eggs 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 egg. |
|
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). In July of 2000 I found a larvae feeding on
fireweed (Epilobium) with my indoor-reared Hyles gallii larvae. The larva evidently was
introduced to the
container from food gathered for the gallii. The floridensis larva progressed nicely to normal
size.
On July 18, 1999, 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 ziploc plastic tub in the refrigerator crisper. |
|
Return to Sphingidae Index
Reurn to Saturniidae Index