I found a White Lined Sphinx caterpillar in a dry sand prairie in Pierce County, Wisconsin, in August 2007.
It was eating Wild Four-O’Clock – Mirabilis nyctaginea. David Wagner says that the caterpillars are “exceptionally variable” in patterning. This one is certainly very different from MJ’s White-lined Sphinx caterpillar.
I took the caterpillar home, and it pupated almost immediately.
About 10 days later, it hatched into an adult moth.
Marcie O’Connor
Buffalo County, Wisconsin