That's another beautiful moth! And, as always, enjoy your story about finding them. You can relate a "find" to almost every aspect of your life. I think that's incredible!

Your larva photo reminded me that last week, I found a horn worm on the Coral Porter weed (Stachytarpheta mutabilis). It was absolutely huge. I didn't remove it, so it's probably made a cocoon somewhere at the foot of the plant. I did photograph the larva. Now I'm curious as to which moth it will become. At the time, I just thought it was one of the same horn worms as I find on the Tomato plants. Could still be. I'll have to compare my photos to some online pictures. And I may have to do a little treasure hunting in the garden--look for some lose soil and see if I can find a rather large cocoon.

Sandy

That's interesting, Larry! My titan moth visited the flowers in my garden late in the evening for about a week, so the late evening/dusk thing is the same.
These hummingbird moths are among my favorite moths - 'too cute for words!
Sherry

Sandy,
Hard not to have a lot of "finds" when you've spent the number of "lep" hours in the field I have.
Sight unseen, on that plant and with the larval size I'll venture a guess that your hornworm was a Manduca rustica.

Sherry,
I tried hard at first not to get too involved with the Sphingidae. I was more interested in going deep into the Saturniidae and Arctiidae instead. But as you say, they just don't lend themselves well to being ignored, so they soon became my third Macroheterocera specialty.

Larry

Larry,

I compared my photo to the Manduca rustica, and I'm pretty sure you are a good guesser. This will be a new one for me, but not a new one for our area.

Thanks.

Ah missed chances, My ex was stationed at Hickam AFB for 3 yrs. Shoulda, woulda, coulda... LoL Too bad I was not into these lovelies, nor spotted this particular one. I have been to the park pictured, as well as the hotel too.

Thank you Larry, for bringing back some very good memories for me. If I could, I would move back to Hawai'i. Lovely place to live. :)

~Tina

Tina,
I never went to Hickam, but Fort Shafter was one of my customers when I was in Honolulu on business. Our place was on Maui, but island fever prevented us from trying to live there year round even after I retired from that business. Lots of nice people there (the natives) so a great place to live maybe if the "smallness" doesn't bother you like it did us after a short time.
L.

Intersting, Larry. The moth looks a little Hemaris-like, while the larva looks hauntingly Derapsis.

Derapsis? I assume you mean Darapsa (Macroglossinae).

Well, I guess you are not going to clarify what you were referring to. There is no "Derapsis" classification in Sphingidae, never has been, nor for any other organism for that matter I can determine. Taxonomy is the best reference there is for all concerned to be on the same page... if it is used correctly, and worthless if not.