Acherontia atropos (Linnaeus, 1758)

Family: Sphingidae
Genus: Acherontia
Species: atropos

• It occurred in orchards, gardens, meadows… essentially anywhere where its foodplants occurred in abundance. Is a rare species now.
• Eggs are oval, greenish or bluish laid singly on underneath old leaves of the hostplant. Eggs are small for size of moth (1,5×1,2 mm). The full grown larva are 120-130mm. Larvae are in three forms: green, brown or yellow. The pupa is in a pupal chamber in soil at 15-40 cm.
• Flight period: sometime found from May but usually in the autumn (September-October-November).
• Hostplant: specially plants for Solanaceae, Bignoniaceae and Oleaceae (Solanum tuberosum, S. dulcamara, Ligustrum, Datura, Cannabis, Atropa, Lycium, Philadelphus, Nicotiana, Nerium, Olea, Schrebera alata, Stachytarpeta indica, Clerodendron, Tecomaria, Tecoma, Withania, Hoslundia, Fraxinus).
• photos taken in Romania and Greece

Similar species (in Europe): none

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