DISTRIBUTION:

Lintneria justiciae (wingspan: ) flies in
southeastern Brazil: Rio de Janeiro; southeastern Minas Gerais (LV); Santa Catarina: Rio Vermelho, Sao Bento do Sul and Corupa; and probably Sao Paulo (WO?);
eastern Argentina: Entre Rios (October) and Misiones (February, May): Dos de Mayo; and in
Uruguay (EB).

In his The Hawk Moths of North America, 2007, James P. Tuttle has assigned all the Sphinx genus species from Mexico south throughout South American to Lintneria, Butler, 1876, based on consistent differences in wing characters and significant larval differences.

FLIGHT TIMES:

Lintneria justiciae adults fly in late January in Itanhandu, southern Minas Gerais, Brazil (LV). Leonardo Aguado reports a February flight in Dos de Mayo, Misiones, Argentina.

Lintneria justiciae, Dos de Mayo, Depto Caingas, Misiones, Argentina,
February, 2007, courtesy of Leonardo Aguado.

ECLOSION:

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

SCENTING AND MATING:

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

EGGS, LARVAE, PUPAE:

Larvae are reported to feed on Justicia in the Acanthaceae family and Petunia in the Solanaceae family. These listings may be in error.

Larvae have been confirmed feeding on Hyptis sidifolia (= H. umbrosia ) (Lamiaceae) in Minas Gerais, Brazil (JT).

Please visit my special request for images of Lintneria species larvae at Lintneria larvae, and help if you can.

It is anticipated that the Lintneria larvae will most often be encountered on Lamiaceae: Salvia (Sage), Mentha (Mints), Monarda (Beebalm) and Hyptis (Bushmints); Verbenaceae: Verbena and Lantana camara (shrub verbenas or lantanas).

Although they may be encountered feeding during daylight hours, one is even more likely to discover them feeding in the evening or after dark.

Two of the greatest clues for discovering larvae are stripped foliage and droppings beneath the plant. You might be quite surprised at what will turn up in the evening or after dark in a flashlight assisted search.

It is believed that all "Lintneria larvae will exhibit "a fleshy thoracic dorsal "horn" in the first 4 instars (unique in the Sphingidae of the world to my knowledge) which is replaced by a thoracic dorsal "hump" with a large black patch in the 5th instar." J.A. Tuttle.

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