Modest Sphinx Moth

A bug that's native to my area so I like it. It's range includes much of North America: from British Columbia to Nova Scotia, south to northern Florida, west to Texas, Oregon, New Mexico. Absent from California, Arizona, Nevada, and the arctic.

It's habitat is along rivers and on moist mountainsides; generally, anywhere the host plants grow. Larvae feed on leaves of poplar, aspen, cottonwood (all Populus spp.), and willow (Salix spp.). Adults don't feed.

Adults fly in June and July in the north; April to September in Gulf states. Larvae present July to November. Eggs laid on leaves of host plant hatch in about 9 days; overwinters as a pupa in shallow burrow in the ground; two generations per year in the south, one in the north.

Called the ... read more"Modest" Sphinx Moth because when seen facing up on a wall, the bottom half of the moth is dark, as though "modestly covered" by a cloak or shawl.