Hawk Moth

Description:

Sphingidae; Macroglossinae; Eupanacra tiridates (Boisduval, 1875). On Sep 4, 2022, I posted a spotting on Project Noah of a Hawk Moth Larva (https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/52...). At that time I was unsure of the species, but reasonably sure of the genus. So, I called it Eupanacra sp. I planned to keep an eye on it when it pupated and try to get some pictures when it eclosed. The day after posting my spotting I saw that it was starting to pupate. So, I was pleased that I knew where it was and could check on it from time to time, but I became concerned when I realized that it had chosen to pupate in an exposed place (not underground as I had anticipated) and this made it vulnerable to predation from birds. So I collected it and placed it in one of my homemade rearing cages. I checked on it several times each day and this afternoon at around 4:00 pm, it eclosed. By 5:45 pm, it was ready to fly so I brought the cage out to our front yard and opened it. The above pictures were taken just before it flew off into the front garden. A quick search on Philippine Lepidoptera's website revealed that it was Eupanacra tiridates, a happy ending.

Habitat:

The larva of this moth was spotted in our front yard on Devil's Ivy (Epipremnum aureum), It was released in the same place.