Any idea what kind of moth this is?

[Heika]

Hiya all,

The bug napper has nabbed about five of these moths in the last couple of weeks. They are huge! My chameleon LOVES them, and I am always glad to see one in the collection container on the bug napper in the morning. Out of curiosity, anyone know what they are? I wonder how hard they would be to keep? It would be great to keep them as a food source.

Heika

Yum!

 

[nekrosoft13]

bug napper? which one do you use? from where?

 

[Heika]

Hi..

I use ZooMed's bug napper. It works great for moths!

Here is the link to the product page at ZooMed: http://www.zoomed.com/html/bugnapper.php

I have heard that you can buy it from online retailers for as little as about $25.00. I bought mine on Ebay a while back.

Heika

 

[nekrosoft13]

thanks, this will be better then chasing moths at night with a net

 

[edub2017]

Pet Guys has the best price on bug nappers, among other things. Click Here

 

[zero742]

I believe that is a type of Sphinx Moth...unsure of what the scientific name is. They are what results after a hornworm digs down and makes a pupa in the ground. Neat moths, I used to raise the hornworms to their moth phase. He looks like he's really enjoying it!

 

[Heika]

Hi Zero,

Thanks!

I was thinking it was a sphinx moth too, but I didn't think from a hornworm. Don't the hornworm moths have more patterning on their wings, and no stripes on their face? I poked around today to see if I could find it, but the closest I got was a white line sphinx moth, but that doesn't exactly fit either. I dunno. Whichever one it is, he sure does like it.

That is a great idea about the hornworms. I have ordered them in before, and my chameleon refuses to eat them. I should have tried letting them pupate, because he will definately eat the moths. I will pick up some more and give it a try.

Heika

 

[edub2017]

Are wild caught sphinx moths okay as feeders? Considering wild hornworms are toxic? Does the metamorphisis completely rid the moth's of thier toxicity?

 

[Heika]

I have assumed that they are ok to feed, but that is simply an assumption. It seems that any toxicity from what they were eating would be cleaned out of them during the time that they pupate. I have fed several sphinx moths to my chameleon, and he shows no ill effects at all, but like I said, I am not positively sure which species I am catching. It could be a variety of species for that matter. Sphinx moths either eat nectar as adults or don't feed at all. I believe that the one that I fed to my chameleon yesterday was a Sphinx perelegans, or the Elegant Sphinx. They don't feed as adults. Here is the website where I found the information on this particular moth: http://www.silkmoths.bizland.com/spereleg.htm

That website is pretty amazing for moth and caterpillar identification. It says you have to buy a membership to it, but you can access the site without it. Here is the link to its homepage: http://silkmoths.bizland.com/indexos.htm

Another really cool bug site for identifying bugs is: http://whatsthatbug.com/

Heika

 

[psyensics]

sphinx moth? cool. where can I get horn worms so that I can get to hatch into a moth?

 

[lowendfrequency]

sphinx moth? cool. where can I get horn worms so that I can get to hatch into a moth?

I've had good experiences with http://www.mulberryfarms.com