''Eumorpha pandorus'', the Pandora sphinx moth or Pandorus sphinx moth, is a North American

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

in the family

Sphingidae The Sphingidae are a family of moths commonly called sphinx moths, also colloquially known as hawk moths, with many of their caterpillars known as hornworms. It includes about 1,450 species. It is best represented in the tropics, but species ar ...

. The species was first described by

Jacob Hübner Jacob Hübner (20 June 1761 – 13 September 1826, in Augsburg) was a German entomologist. He was the author of ''Sammlung Europäischer Schmetterlinge'' (1796–1805), a founding work of entomology. Scientific career Hübner was the author of '' ...

in 1821.

Description

The pandora sphinx moth has a wingspan of . Its wings are opaque and have a greenish-olive background on the dorsal surfaces. The wings are narrow and are held deltaform at rest. Females generally have a larger abdomen than males. There are green markings on the dorsal forewing with a two-toned double spot extending from the base along the forewing's inner margin. When the wings are folded, the latter spot aligns with a dark mark on the moth's body that covers each tegula. A green marking with a pale outline is visible near the apex of the forewing. The dorsal surfaces of the hindwings, when extended, reveal black patches on a white background that becomes greenish-olive near the termens. Pink is present around the torni of the hindwings and in isolated areas on the dorsal forewings. Small dark eyespots on the hindwings and the forewings, there found in the discal position bearing two tiny "pupils," are visible even when the wings are folded. The ventral surfaces of the wings are a pale shade of yellow-green or brown. ''E. pandorus'' shares the southern part of its range with ''E. intermedia''. It is distinguished from the latter species by the shape of the darker portion of its basal two-toned spot on the end that faces the forewing's outer margin: it is strongly wing-shaped in ''E. intermedia'' due to the shorter length of the spot's inferior border in comparison to its superior border, whereas the spot is more rectangular overall in ''E. pandorus''. In addition, the faint subterminal line on the forewing (located just basal to the apical spot) is typically scalloped in ''E. intermedia'' but is straight or slightly sinusoidal in ''E. pandorus''.

Caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder ...

s grow up to and are green in the first instar, but may be one of a variety of colors in later instars, including green or brownish-red. The head and first two

thoracic The thorax (: thoraces or thoraxes) or chest is a part of the anatomy of mammals and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main ...

segments can be retracted into the third segment. The abdomen has a small spot on the second segment and big white oval spots overlying the last five spiracles. They also have the characteristic "horn" of the

hornworms with its base on an eyespot at the end of their abdomen, although only the raised eyespot is present in the last larval

instar An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'' 'form, likeness') is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, which occurs between each moult (''ecdysis'') until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to ...

. Eumorpha pandorus MHNT CUT 2010 0 392 Edgard, Louisiana, USA, male dorsal.jpg, Male dorsal Eumorpha pandorus MHNT CUT 2010 0 392 Edgard, Louisiana, USA, male ventral.jpg, Male ventral Eumorpha pandorus MHNT CUT 2010 0 392 Edgard, Louisiana, USA, female dorsal.jpg, Female dorsal Eumorpha pandorus MHNT CUT 2010 0 392 Edgard, Louisiana, USA, female ventral.jpg, Female ventral Eumorpha pandorusPCSL13908B.jpg, Caterpillar Eumorpha pandorusPCSL13915B.jpg, In Durham

Distribution

The species is widespread in the east, the southeast and the center of North America, from Nova Scotia and Ontario to Florida and eastern Texas. American Southwest.

Biology

Adult moths fly at dusk. Like other Sphingidae, adult pandora sphinx moths have a long proboscis that is used to feed on nectar. Females lay

translucent In the field of optics, transparency (also called pellucidity or diaphaneity) is the physical property of allowing light to pass through the material without appreciable light scattering by particles, scattering of light. On a macroscopic scale ...

eggs singly on leaves of the host plant, mainly ''

Vitis ''Vitis'' (grapevine) is a genus of 81 accepted species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus consists of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, bot ...

'' spp. (grapes), '' Ampelopsis'' spp. (peppervine) and '' Parthenocissus quinquefolia'' (Virginia creeper). The pandora sphinx moth produces two broods during the summer months in the portion of its range around

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, while it may be

univoltine Voltinism is a term used in biology to indicate the number of broods or generations of an organism in a year. The term is most often applied to insects, and is particularly in use in sericulture, where silkworm varieties vary in their voltinism. ...

in the northern parts of its range.

Larva A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase ...

e consume copious amounts of

foliage A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, f ...

, and when they are ready, after achieving the fifth larval instar, they climb down their host plant and burrow underground, where they

pupa A pupa (; : pupae) is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their life cycle, the stages th ...

te. The

is dark brown in color, quite slender, and has a long cremaster. There the pupa will remain for either a couple of weeks if there are multiple broods per year, or for the duration of winter, either in the last brood of the year or in univoltine populations. When the pupa is ready, it wiggles to the surface just prior to eclosion. The newly emerged adults then climb on a plant or some other surface and pump fluid (

haemolymph Hemolymph, or haemolymph, is a fluid, similar to the blood in invertebrates, that circulates in the inside of the arthropod's body, remaining in direct contact with the animal's tissues. It is composed of a fluid plasma in which hemolymph ce ...

) into their wings to extend them. Females emit pheromones at night, and males fly into the wind to track a female's pheromone plume after casting about at right angles to the wind to locate a plume.

References

External links

* Eumorpha Moths of North America Moths described in 1821 Taxa named by Jacob Hübner {{Philampelini-stub