Species Enyo ocypete - Hodges#7852

7852

Enyo ocypete (Linnaeus, 1758)

Original Combination:

Sphinx ocypete Linnaeus, 1758

Synonym(s):

Sphinx camertus Cramer, 1779

From Greek okypetes (ωκυπετης)- "swift-flying"

Wingspan: 60 mm (1)

Southern United States into neotropics.

Suggested by Heppner as a species straying into, but not breeding in, Florida. Tuttle (2007) mentions specimens from the Florida Keys and the possibility that they might be breeding there.

Adults are on wing year round in the tropics, southern Florida and Louisiana. They are on wing from August to November in the northern part of the range. (1)

Larvae probably feed on Vitis tiliifolia and other Vitaceae and Dilleniaceae species, such as Vitis, Cissus rhombifolia and Ampelopsis, Tetracera volubilis, Curatella americana, Tetracera hydrophila and Doliocarpus multiflorus. Ludwigia of the Onagraceae family might also be a host plant. (1)

This species is not listed in Covell. (2)

7851 Enyo lugubris females lack the wide dark band at the base of the abdomen found in ocypete. Males lack the white patch along the inner margin of the hindwing. (See Bill Oehlke's species page for Enyo ocypete.) Hodges (1971) (3) mentions that the dark labial palpi of ocypete will separate it from lugubris.