Posted by:
lele
at Thu May 18 16:03:18 2006 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by lele ]
Hello Steve and welcome to you and Azumah (love the name and spelling - if it's a name I should "know" forgive me  !)
As for your moth... I assume you are referring to a tomato or tobacco hornworm? There are many species, with some being safer than others. Eastern Forest Hornworms
First, please do not "remove the wings"  If for some reason your cham decided it did not want it you now have a living, suffering moth (hey, you'll get to know me and especially my personal stand on certain moths . It is also not necessary, for an appropriate size cham, but if the ambilobe grow at the same rate as nosy be's I would not suggest feeding it. I have a 5 month old NB and - even though he will never be fed a sphinx moth -I would not give him one of that size, yet.
Second, if you reared this on artificial food and brought to pupation it would be safe, toxicity wise, but if the larva was reared on tomato (potato, etc.) plant, then no, it would not be safe. Unsure as to how much of the glycosides (toxins in Solanaceae family of plants) are in the adult moth but not worth the risk.
For future reference, if you ever catch a sphinx moth at lights at night it was, obviously, fed on tomato, etc. plants, but also keep in mind that they nectar on some toxic plants such as Datura (aka: jimson weed, thorn apple).
Depending on where you live, most small to medium size moths that you catch at lights this time of year are safe to feed to them. Nature's rule of thumb is orange and/or orange(or red) & black coloration are warning signs meaning "stay away" - you will notice that this species of sphinx has orange markings on its abdomen.
Not sure if you read the article on chameleonnews.com on hornworms but it is pretty comprehensive - if you have/do read it you will also understand my connection to these beauties
lele
hornworms
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info
1.0 Nosy Be Panther Chameleon - Cyrus
0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
1.1 Side-blotched lizards - Ana and Stan for now 
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0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skippy
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh, Died 4/21/06
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?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet
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RE: are horned worm moths edible? - lele, Thu May 18 16:03:18 2006