How to make early S. ligustri survive until rest comes out?

Hi all,

Yesterday a perfect female Sphinx ligustri emerged from the cool storage. I had not expected it yet and find her fairly early, since it is still freezing here at night. I have some more pupae, which I am trying to force into emergence inside .

The single female has started calling tonight. She has a nice round belly which appears to be quite stuffed with eggs. And I am wondering how I can make her survive long enough to mate her with - hopefully - a male from the rest of the batch.

I have some experience with feeding A. atropos honeywater and keeping them fit for weeks (sometimes months) that way, but after studying the long, thin tongue of S. ligustri I am anxious this trick won´t work for this species.

Any tips or suggestions on keeping this beautiful creature alive and kicking until a mate emerges to make sure of a next generation?

Thanks in advance!

Harmen

Thank you both for the quick replies,

From your information I reckon the chances of success are not so good. Even worse since none of the other pupae have hatched yet. I´ve changed my strategy a little bit by keeping the female moth cooler and the pupae a bit warmer. That way I hope to speed up the emergence of new Ligustri moths, while slowing down the ageing of the existing one.
The female moth has been calling every night this week, but has not moved or flown an inch in all that time. So she seems to be conserving her strength...

I´ll keep you posted on the eventual outcome.

Best regards,
Harmen

Hi all,

The above mentioned female Sphinx ligustri is still much alive. Alas, no mate has emerged yet.

A few days ago she was getting a bit a dehydrated look (less filled up abdomen, measurable weight loss).

That´s when I tried the old atropos force feeding trick with a toothpick and honey water. This way of feeding appears to work pretty well for S. ligustri too!
You have to present the food in a rather large, shallow tray (otherwise you can´t manoeuvre the tip of the tongue into the liquid) and with that you have to watch out the moth doesn´t march right through the sticky moisture. But as soon as the tip of the tongue starts moving, the moth remains immobilised until well fed (few minutes regularly, just as with atropos), beating its wings at a constant frequency. You can leave her on the food like that for a while and do something else in the area (e.g. write this post ), until you hear the frequency of the wing flaps change to something more irregular. Then she´s had enough and preparing for take off, so you´d better get her back into a flight cage.

I´m surprised this practice works so well with this moth, with its totally different tongue than A. atropos, too. Have you ever tried it? Will it keep my moth alive longer?

With A. atropos I have learned not to fuss too much about the water:honey ratio in the food. I started out with exactly 1:1 (volume) with liquid honey, but I found that adding more water made the food easier to take for the A. atropos moths. A surplus of water is defeacated into the cage in the night following the feed (I usely feed a full belly once every three days). The brownish dredge makes the cages a bit grimy, but that easily comes off in the washing (machine) after the breeding season. And the moths live happily ´ever´after.
So I do not know at what honey concentration I feed S. ligustri. I have a shallow bowl of honeywater which I let dry out between feedings. For the next use I simply add some more water (and some honey, if the sugary stickyness appears all gone).

I wonder, if any of you tried this practice with S. ligustri before, what results it will bring in the long run. 4 weeks max, states Rudi above. Lets see if I can postpone my next post until the 12th of April...

Best regards,
Harmen