Acherontia atropos, the stunning death’s head hawkmoth

Happy Easter to everybody, we want to celebrate together offering some special Easter eggs, Acherontia atropos, the death’s head hawkmoth. This species of moth (Sphingidae) is one of the most attractive because of it behavior and shape. Please read the following article to understand the details of our offer, some tips on how to successfully rear and breed Acherontia atropos. Read carefully the terms and conditions, to be aware of the potential risks and guarantees applied on your order. Thank you!

Acherontia atropos eggs for sale

Eggs are collected from different fertilized females and sent the day after being laid. Acherontia atropos eggs will be available through the next 3-4 weeks, so if they’re sold out today it doesn’t mean there won’t be new ones tomorrow, there should be plenty for everybody.

To order Acherontia atropos eggs, visit our shop.

Eggs hatch in 7-10 days after egg laying and larvae can be reared on Ligustrum, Solanaceae, Fraxinus, Eunomyous and many others. Very easy and quick to rear, adults need to be fed every other day with a 40% honey-water solution to make them pair and lay lot of eggs.

The handling time that we take to ship Acherontia atropos eggs is 5-15 days, this is to provide only the freshest eggs possible.

Acherontia atropos, how to rear the death’s head hawkmoth

The caterpillars reach full size in about 4 weeks, even 3 with high temperatures! As they go through L1, L2 and L3 we keep moving them to bigger containers and when they reach L4, we use our 40x60cm rearing cages. It’s important to always provide them with fresh food, prolonged starvation or wilted host plants could lead to the onset of diseases and sometimes even to cannibalism.

Provide good airflow to the larvae throughout all the process, that’s the main reason why we choose the mesh cage in later instars.  Rearing cages provide enough space for the larval stages in which animals start to consume huge amounts of food. Remember that Acherontia atropos likes a dry and clean environment, thus never spray the caterpillars with water and remember to clean their droppings daily. 

At the end of the last larval instar (the fifth instar, which is called L5), starts the wandering phase in which caterpillars will look for the right place to pupate. Acherontia atropos is an underground pupator, which means that the caterpillars don’t spin a cocoon among the leaves but drop from the host plant and start wandering on the ground, looking for a place to burrow and pupate. Fully grown L5 caterpillars show orange markings along the dorsal side as soon as they’re ready to pupate, making it easy to distinguish between growing and full grown ones.

If you want more information on Acherontia atropos rearing and breeding, please check our full article: breeding case Acherontia atropos

We suggest to have a look to Tony’s Pittaway webpage, for description of the species bilogy.

Acherontia atropos, shipping terms and conditions

We can offer guarantee for any order of Acherontia atropos eggs sent towards Italy (post or courier) and to EU orders done with courier shipping. If you order death’s head hawkmoth eggs from EU with priority shipping, you assume the risk of postal delays.

We can ship Accherontia atropos, the death’s head hawkmoth, eggs only towards EU countries. We apologize to all extra-EU customers but shipping is to much risky, given the fast hatching time of these eggs.

Please mind that we can take from 3 days up to 2 weeks to ship Acherontia atropos eggs, if you find this product sold out, please stay tuned on the SHOP as more eggs will come soon.