Does anyone have any ideas on saving our tobacco hornworm moths? In November, indoors? We've been told by a butterfly expert that they WON'T eat indoors, and they don't seem to be eating, despite: * a hummingbird feeder, with official butterfly food, and we glued a fake petunia on the end of the tube, so it hopefully looked kinda like something they'd try to eat from. If they used it, we were asleep and didn't see it. They sleep all day. * I've brought in some petunias from the window box (amazingly, they're still blooming the day after Thanksgiving!) * I've put liquid official butterfly food in a clean washcloth, nudged one up to it, and it chose to climb further up on the washcloth, last night. (2/3 of his/her right wings are gone, so he'll never hover again.) * I bought them some Stargazer lilies, (probably not their proper food) * They're in the guest bedroom (so the cats don't get at them again) where there's a Mandevilla flower -- big pink flowers, petunia-shaped. I'm going to try mounting the hummingbird feeder so that they reach it from the Mandevilla pot, where they may feel comfortable, blending in with the soil. Don't know if being on soil is good for them, either. But what do I do with them? This is late November; they can't be active in the usually 40+ degree temperatures out there, and there's very little blooming out there for them to eat. (They came indoors because, as caterpillars, they were on a tomato plant that we brought inside when it was likely to frost overnight, and we let them and their 6 sibs eat it ALL up. Most of their sibs crawled away after we put the pot back outside when the weather warmed up, and the tomato was out of leaves). At least these 2 pupated in the pot and came out 3 days ago. They will probably die soon, since they're probably not getting anything to eat. Funny--as caterpillars, they ate all day -- except when they saw us watching. Eventually they lost their fear of us, and ate when we were looking at them. Now, they want out! Little do they know. Another interesting thing: wild moths do not let you pick them up. These don't seem to have the usual fear of me. BEFORE they lost their ability to fly, when their wings had had many hours or a whole day to dry, they let me pick them up -- maybe they remember something from their past lives. Anyway, we're going to crazy lengths to try to give them their normal (2-week?) adult lifespan. Can anyone propose other means to get them to eat? Thanks!

Keeping the pupae out of the sun, occasionally hydrate it by bathing it in cool water will help. Like Molanic, I often keep mine in the fridge in a Glad container on paper towel and take it out once a month or so to give it a bath. It is essential to keep them somewhat hydrated in order to avoid dessication. When day and night temps are warmer in later spring/early summer, bring them outdoors in a container with air holes and some sticks they can climb onto when they emerge. They have to hang from the sticks for some time to dry and inflate their wings. This is a good time to get photos of them, too. I only get Hemaris diffinus - Snowberry Clearwing, and their favorite food in my yard is my yellow Honeysuckle. I have Japanese purpurea, but have never found them on this. Another excellent host plant to check is Virginia Creeper. Numerous sphinx moths use it as a larval host, like Eumorpha achemon (Achemon sphinx), Eumorpha pandorus (Pandora sphinx), Darapsis myron (Virginia Creeper sphinx), Amphion floridensis (Nessus sphinx), Deidamis inacriptum (Lettered sphinx), Hyles lineata (White-lined sphinx), and Specodina abbottii (Abbott's sphinx), to name a few. I have raised the first 4 named above, and perhaps one day, I'll find a few others. Good luck and have fun! Susan

Hi Pam! It looks like one of the smallest of the hummingbird moths; Snowberry clearwing, but the markings are usually yellow and not white, although on the link below some of them look almost white. Maybe yours is a local adaptation if there is a species of bumblebee in the area with white markings. They are not uncommon around here. The ones I've seen look almost exactly like the bumblebees on the same flowers and being easily mistaken for them by predators they are safe flying in the daytime. Their caterpillar food source is honeysuckle. You might want to post your picture on the butterfly forum for a positive ID. It's an active forum and they are very good at ID'ing over there. Here is a link that might be useful: Hummingbird moths

It showed up briefly once more but I couldn't get close enough with the camera for a picture. I've been through two butterfly and moth sites but haven't seen anything that matches it so far. It's closer to 1/3 of an inch wingspan than 1/2 inch, and mostly black except for the four spots. The wings overlap pretty well, no gaps between fore and hind. Larry