Sphingid ID?

Sun Aug 26 02:30:56 EDT 2001

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PuerNux at aol.com wrote:

> I finally got some pictures of a sphingid found on our Gardenia in East TN.
> Here is a link to them. Any help w/ID would be greatly appreciated.
> http://www.geocities.com/puernux/index.html
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> -Eric Hossler

Hello.

You say, in your web page blurb:

> Unknown Caterpillar taken about Aug 15th on a potted Gardenia in Johnson City, TN (elev 1700'). The larvae produced
> 50+ braconid wasps within a day of capture, hence all the black spotting near the head and on the abdomen. My best guess
> was Manduca rustica, but I cannot ID with certainty.
>
I would appreciate it if someone would be kind enough to correct me if I am
full of it, but it is my opinion that Manduca rustica usually has more yellow
above the diagonal lines -- I can't even see any at all in your picture -- and
the diagonal lines themselves are considerably wider and quite fuzzy on their
dorsal edges.  Are these features part of the species' variability?  Keep in
mind here that I have only seen this species in illustrations, never "in the
flesh" at all.  Gardenia is also a red flag for me, but then it could be that I
just don't know that species well enough.

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<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
<html>
PuerNux at aol.com wrote:
<blockquote TYPE=CITE>I finally got some pictures of a sphingid found on
our Gardenia in East TN.
 Here is a link to them. Any help w/ID would be greatly appreciated.
 <a href="http://www.geocities.com/puernux/index.html">http://www.geocities.com/puernux/index.html</a>
Thanks in advance.
-Eric Hossler</blockquote>
Hello.
You say, in your web page blurb:
<blockquote TYPE=CITE>
<pre>Unknown Caterpillar taken about Aug 15th on a potted Gardenia in Johnson City, TN (elev 1700'). The larvae produced&nbsp;
50+ braconid wasps within a day of capture, hence all the black spotting near the head and on the abdomen. My best guess&nbsp;
was Manduca rustica, but I cannot ID with certainty.</pre>
</blockquote>

<p>I would appreciate it if someone would be kind enough to correct me
if I am full of it, but it is my opinion that Manduca rustica usually has
more yellow above the diagonal lines -- I can't even see any at all in
your picture -- and the diagonal lines themselves are considerably wider
and quite fuzzy on their dorsal edges.&nbsp; Are these features part of
the species' variability?&nbsp; Keep in mind here that I have only seen
this species in illustrations, never "in the flesh" at all.&nbsp; Gardenia
is also a red flag for me, but then it could be that I just don't know
that species well enough.</html>

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