I have recently obtained a simular pupa(from Phoenix) and am wondering how yours is fairing? Has it changed into an adult yet & what conditions are you keeping it in?

Sorry for the delay in replying. I haven't been back to the site until now. My little friend was carefully placed back into the original area and allowed to progress naturally. That seemed to me the best possible choice. A few weeks later it was my delight to discover the beautifully colored moth enjoying my petunias. I posted the picture, but I'm afraid I didn't do it justice. As it turns out, I had many more turn up in the garden. I hope you enjoyed your guest as much as I did.

When you linked these two images we assumed that you observed the moth eclosing from the pupal stage and photographed it later. Are you now saying that the only thing these two images have in common is that they are both images of sphinx moths and they were both in your yard at some time?

Correct. It was a leap of faith on my part. The area where it was originally discovered was in my petunia patch and the casing (forgive my ignorance, I'm not a bug person)was open. The rest of the moths arrived about a week later in a diferent location in the garden. If this information negates my prior posting, please accept my apologies.

but we do reserve Link for multiple images of the same individual or colony. Since we can't be sure this is the same individual we think it is probably safer to unlink these, especially given the possible ID as a Manduca. Thanks for posting. We hope to see m ore of your images!