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Photo#717678
Manduca - Manduca sexta

Manduca - Manduca sexta
Picture Rocks, Pima County, Arizona, USA
October 20, 2012

Moved
Moved from Manduca.

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

 
Manduca
Either M. sexta or M. occulta. The even checkering on the forewings of this individual make me think M. occulta...

 
Yes, it is less patterened
than our usual M sexta, but M occulta has not been seen here, so I'd say sexta

 
Manduca
You may be right about this being M. sexta, but it's worth mentioning that M. occulta has been recorded in Pima Co. but apparently only in July and August (BAMONA, Tuttle).

 
So what do I look for
if I see it again?

 
Manduca
According to Tuttle M. occulta is overall "less robust" than M. sexta with more white in the checkering on the forewings. I.e. the checkering in M. occulta is more or less 50/50 black and white while in M. sexta there is more black than white.

See here for some good spread specimens of M. occulta and a live image: http://www.silkmoths.bizland.com/mocculta.htm

 
This is M. sexta. Another th
This is M. sexta. Another thing that differentiates the two is the markings on the thorax. Sexta has 4 gray spots on the thorax, whereas occulta's thorax is a solid dark brown. I can see 2 of the 4 gray spots in the image and the other 2 are rubbed off.

I've seen at least a dozen M. occulta in SE AZ by the way. I've never heard of them as far north as Tucson, but it wouldn't surprise me. Most of the ones I've seen are in Brown Canyon, California Gulch, Pena Blanca Canyon, Harshaw, and Copper Canyon. For every one M. occulta, you see several hundred M. sexta.

 
Thanks
I will look for them next summer, I black light in all the locations you mention.

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