Sphingidae
December 8, 2009
3 species of Sphingidae from Bellavista, Ecuador.
1: Perigonia sp. ?
2: Xylophanes sp.
3: Adhemarius sp.
I would be grateful for any ID-help.
Leif
Bellavista Lodge, western slope, Ecuador
Hi Leif,
Sadly, we haven’t the time to post all of your lovely images. We are copying Bill Oehlke on this letter. If he writes back to both of us with IDs, we will post his response.
Daniel
Adhemarius sexoculata
Hi Leif,
We had already included Bill Oehlke in our response to you and we would defer any of our feeble identification requests to his expertise. As we found the time (it is the end of the semester and we college professors and division heads have many responsibilities at the moment, like needy students, grading, annual unit plans, program reviews, program moves, equipment orders, and evaluations) we began to attempt to research your request. We were pleasantly surprised to find your Sphinx Moth tentatively identified as #3 Adhemarius sp. already posted on Bill Oehlke’s excellent Ecuadorean Sphingidae page and identified as Adhemarius sexoculata.
Nyceryx hyposticta
We then found the image that you tentatively identified as #1 Perigonia sp. also posted to Bill’s Ecuadorean Sphingidae website and identified as Nyceryx hyposticta. We can’t say for certain what species your Xylophanes species is, and we searched through the thirty three possibilities that Bill Oehlke has identified as flying in Ecuador two times in vain. Perhaps the closest is Xylophanes crotonis, or perhaps Xylophanes aglaor. We can only guess that since we know Bill received all three of your photos when we originally copied him, that he also had difficulty with this identification, or perhaps he has not yet found the time to post it.
Xylophanes species
While we are glad that you got your identification Leif, and we are happy that Bill now has some nice living specimens posted to his website, we are sad that we were not included in the identification loop. Perhaps Bill or Leif will find the time to provide the final species identification for our readership.
Hi
Thank you for your reply and comment.
Maybe this is too much, but it’s the only serious forum I have found so far.
As an amateur it’s very difficult to give all the correct information. All my moths from Bellavista are photographed on October 19th 2009. They were all attracted to outside lights around some of the buildings at Bellavista Lodge. Sitting on fence posts and the main gate, well actually everywhere. They were really swarming like crazy. Must have been thousands. Heaven for a moth expert I would think. Even for a birder like me!
I’m sorry, but this is really all the additional information I’m able to give. I could, however, try to estimate size. Maybe small, medium and big is too vague?!
Leif
Pink Spotted Hawkmoth
Update from Bill Oehlke
Daniel,
I identified Nyceryx hyposticta, Adhemarius sexoculata and Agrius cingulata. I am going to seek help on the Xylophanes, but I think it is nebuchodonsor (sp??).
I thought I sent you same message I sent to Leif.
The white moth I think is one of the Arctiidae, the next family I am going to work on.
Bill Oehlke
Thanks Bill,
The Pink Spotted Hawkmoth, Agrius cingulata, came in a different email. We will also include it among Leif’s beautiful Sphingidae.
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