Ophthalm Sphinx Egg Hatches

Our single Ophthalm Sphinx egg (Smerinthus opthalmica) hatched. This egg was obtained from a captive reared female and a wild male.

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After about 9 days since our only fertile Ophthalm Sphinx Moth egg was laid, it became a translucent mottled white and hatched this morning. The newborn caterpillar ate a bit of it shell and began wandering around all over the dish. By the time we discovered it, it had likely been a few hours already and we transferred it onto a cutting of growing willow in a small petri dish. After just a few minutes of crawling around the willow, the neonate caterpillar took a few nibbles which was actually a little surprising since most Saturniids don't feed until dark, but perhaps Shingids feed immediately (not sure since this is the only Sphingid we have reared recently). Anyways, it is a pale greenish white with a pale green head capsule and red horn, looking just like how its mother did a few months ago. 

Looking now at this single little Ophthalm Sphinx, it's actual quite saddening that we are back where we started -- just a single individual with a slim chance of making it to adulthood, being female, calling in a wild male, and giving us fertile eggs. We have already journeyed through such an odd and lucky series events with this species, from finding our first Opthalm Sphinx egg (this one's mother) in the wild (6/28/16), to raising it until pupation (8/2/16), and to having it unexpectedly eclose as a female (8/27/16), to calling in a wild male (8/31/16), and finally to just to have it lay only a single fertile egg since it wasted the other hundred prior to pairing. We were incredibly close to actually having a nice big culture of these caterpillars to rear but our hopes were once again dashed, though we have at least managed to obtain one which is better than nothing. Hopefully, all will go well and this little caterpillar will survive until pupation just like our first one, diapause until next spring, eclose synchronously with the local population as a female, call in a wild male, and give us eggs -- another crazy set of challenges to pass that we will just have to count on luck with, especially the sex since if it is a male we can forget about eggs. 

- Alan