Smerinthus cerisyi Male Ecloses

One of our Cerisyi's sphinx (Smerinthus cerisyi) pupae has eclosed into a male. These originated from Colorado.

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The male Smerinthus cerisyi eclosed this morning and is in perfect shape. Now all we have to wait for is the female to eclose tomorrow or the day after and we'll have a pairing. Below are pictures of the male cerisyi, which greatly resembles S. ophthalmica, though differences are apparent.

The differences between the male Smerinthus cerisyi and our west coast S. ophthalmica suddenly became quite obvious now that we have seen both with our own eyes. The sources and photos we have looked at are correct - the cerisyi's wings are more jagged along the lateral edges and the veins are paler and thus much more contrasting. This makes the ophthalmicas appear much more "smooth" in comparison. Also, this male cerisyi's antennae are proportionately large relative to the body. The abdomen tip where the genitalia is located doesn't look quite the same shape either. And, the most apparent difference (though hard to tell from the photo), is the large size difference between the wings and abdomen of cerisyi and ophthalmica. Their thoraxes and heads are actually about the same size, but this cerisyi's abdomen is smaller, and the wings are significantly shorter, with a forewing length of just 3.1 cm compared to our ophthalmica's 4.2 cm. The cerisyi's eyespots also seems to have more black around them and the pink is darker. 

As far as behavioral differences, the cerisyi seems to be a much more quicker and urgent flyer, flying about all over our room the second it got dark unlike our ophthalmicas which were much more heavy weight and beat their wings more slowly. The cerisyi also reveals its eyespots when prodded on the head just like the ophtahlmicas, but in addition to the eyespot revealing, the moth also shakes its body up and down (not the vibration right before it takes flight), and holds the wings up at an angle. 

​Below is a comparison between S. cerisyi and S. ophthalmica.
​Row 1: S. cerisyi male; Row 2: S. ophthalmica male; Row 3: S. ophthalmica female.

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Authors
Alan Liang

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