Color Attraction of the Crepuscular Hawk Moth (Nephele hespera) (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae)
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Abstract
The crepuscular hawk moth (Nephele hespera) belongs to the family Sphingidae, subfamily Macroglossinae. Hawk moths is known as a pollinator in nature. It is a stenophagous organism which the larva feed only young karunda leaves (Carissa carandas L.). The objectives of this study is to investigate the color and structure of karunda flowers (n=30), crepuscular hawk moths’ proboscis, and the color of artificial flowers attraction and amount of 25% honey solution uptake of the hawk moths. The results showed that karunda’s flowers were white color with a tubular shaped flowers (averaged 19.20±1.16 mm long). The proboscis length of the male and female hawk moth was 46.03±2.33 and 44.03 ± 2.08 mm, respectively. The uptake of honey solution from violet, yellow, pink, white and chartreuse green of artificial flowers was 0.51±0.04, 0.53±0.08, 0.55±0.09, 0.60±0.15 และ0.64±0.12 ml/adult, respectively. The frequency visit of adult hawk moths to various colors of artificial flowers was presented in order from high to low was as follows: chartreuse green, white, yellow, pink and violet.
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