Giant Sphinx Moth observed visiting Ghost Orchid

[chrisaggie]

In April of 2007 I found an amazing place with many Dendrophylax lindenii (the famous ghost orchid). Since then I have thoroughly enjoyed documenting these plants (with the grateful help of Mike Owen at Fakahatchee). I have recorded a spreadsheet of information about the plants including numbering each individual plant, recording data such as root length, number of live/dead rots, height, tree species, etc. During my ghost orchid outings I have come across three Florida panthers (together) and even was charged by a black bear (both of which I will never ever forget!).

During the last many months I have been planning of the Ghost Orchids to open this year so that I can attempt to so the giant sphinx moth (the theorized pollinator of the Ghost Orchid). I knew this would be a challenging task as no one to my knowledge has ever seen this meeting.

Last Saturday, May 17th, 2008, my wife, Misti, and I were out aiting for a moth to visit one of the Ghost Orchids. At some point over the buzzing of mosquitoes we both heard a low hum and then we saw movement in the moon light coming between the trees. The giant sphinx moth buzzed extremely close to Misti twice and then as we both were watching the flower it happened! The moth flew to the flower and then was quickly gone. The light at night was very dim and neither of us were sure if we had really seen what happened. Could it be?!? Luckily we had an infrared video camera set up pointed at the flower.

When we got home I nervously watched the video and couldn’t believe it, we had captured this amazing moment on video!

We would love to have National Geographic show this video so I am waiting to release the video, but still want to share this moment with all of you. In the next week or so I am going to do my best to update my website. I will post the address when it has more information.