Home > Columns > Sphinx Moth

 

NatureSmart Column

Sphinx Moth

Photo by Stan Tekiela

by Stan Tekiela
© NatureSmart

September 10, 2018

“Look, it’s a bird, it’s a plane, no it’s SUPER MOTH”. Late summer brings an amazing insect to our flower gardens across the United States. It is the Sphinx Moth, also called the Hawk Moth or Hummingbird Moth. No matter what you call it, this is a large nectar feeding insect that looks and acts just like a hummingbird.

A unique insect that is found world-wide, with over 1,400 different kinds of this Sphinx Moth. The vast majority of them are found in the tropical parts of the world but a few reach into the northern half of the United States. Most are large in size with large narrow wings and streamlined bodies. Nearly all feed on nectar from flowers so they have the ability hover in flight.

The other evening I was standing in my perennial flower garden surrounded by flowers and noticed a Sphinx Moth going from flower to flower. In particular this was a White-lined Sphinx Moth which has large 2-3 inches wing span and hovers at flowers just like a hummingbird. Typically they come out in the evening with an hour or two of light remaining in the day. I ran to grab a camera and lens to capture this amazing winged beauty.

The Sphinx Moth uses a combination of olfactory (smelling) and visual senses to find flowers. Their eyes are sensitive to blue, green and ultra-violet light. Many flowers reflect UV light which turns the flowers into beacons to attract these insects. Although vision is a key sensory component, they also have a very strong olfactory senses. They can smell (with their antenna) different flower odors and flow the smell to find new patches of flowers.

When feeding, they approach the flower and hover in mid-air. This hovering capability is unique and has only been known to have evolved in just hummingbirds, a few bat species and these moths. The Sphinx Moth are some of the fast flying insects and are capable of flying over 10 MPH. While standing in my garden and trying to capture some images, several times the moths were zipping around me so fast I could barely see where they were going.

While hovering at a flower, they unfurl their long straw-like mouth part called a proboscis. They expertly insert the tip of the proboscis into the corolla (tube) of the flower, which is where the nectar is located, and take a quick sip. They withdraw their mouth part and move onto the next flower and repeat.

While I was trying to capture some images of the sphinx moth I noticed a second then third one hovering at the flowers. Soon I could see five moths feeding at my flowers. I could see that all of them were the White-lined Sphinx Moth. You can identify them by the white lines down their wings and also they have six distinct white stripes on their furry body. They also have a large pink patch on their hindwing (they have four wings, two on each side). Usually you can’t see the pink patch unless you are photographing and capture the wings in an open position.

There are two distinct “flights” of the sphinx moth each year. The first occurs is in late spring and a second in late summer. The late summer flight usually has many more moths. The adults usually don’t survive winter. After mating the females will lay eggs which hatch into large green caterpillars with a single horn protruding at the back. This is why they are sometimes called horn-worms. The caterpillar stage of life is well known for eating a lot. They feed on the green leaves of many species of plant. When it is ready to change (metamorphosis) into the adult moth the caterpillar digs a shallow burrow in the ground where it stays for 2 to 3 weeks. When it’s ready to emerge as an adult, it wiggles up through the soil just before transforming into the adult moth and takes flight.

This is an amazing insect species and I hope you get a chance to see one for yourself. Until next time…

 

Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the U.S. to study and capture images of wildlife. He can be followed at www.facebook.com and twitter.com. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com.

 

The nationally syndicated NatureSmart Column appears in over 25 cities spanning 7 states: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania. It is a bi-weekly column circulated to over 750,000 readers.

Recent Columns
Most RecentAbout Stan's Columns

American Badger

It’s funny, I believe the average person knows more about the Honey Badger (Mellivora capensis), a critter of Africa and Southwest Asia than they do about the badger in our own backyard, the American Badger (Taxidea taxus). Social media has a lot to do with the Honey Badger phenomena and...

Backyard Bird Feeding

Winter bird feeding is one of the most common / popular hobbies in America. It is estimated that nearly 60 million Americans feed birds in their yards in winter or summer. That is about 40 percent of all American’s make backyard bird feeding part of their everyday activities. It’s...

Population changes in Flying Squirrels

The population of any given animal species in nature goes up and down over time in a geographic area. This is how nature works. Some years is species is plentiful and other years the population is dismal in a given area. These are the ebbs and flows of nature. I was reminded of this the other...

Eastern Gray Squirrel

I was recently asked by a local TV news station to answer a question about how squirrels find their buried nuts. This is a great example of super cool things that go on in nature that most people don’t understand or realize. So, let’s look at these amazing squirrels and their...

View all of the titles in the
NatureSmart Bookstore

Check out Stan's latest photos at
NatureSmart Wildlife Images

Take a tour with Stan.
» More Info

Hear Stan on radio stations all across the Midwest.
» More Info