sphinx moth in Philadelphia?

Michael Gochfeld gochfeld at eohsi.rutgers.edu
Mon Jul 3 18:34:18 EDT 2000


In our garden in central New Jersey, both the Hummingbird Clearwing (Hemaris
thysbe) and the Snowberry Clearwing (Hemaris diffinis) are common, particularly
when the Buddleia is in bloom. It is not unusual to see 2 to 4 of each at a
time. I learned the latter as "Bumblebee Clearwing", it is black and yellow.
Only once, at dusk have I seen the Nessus Sphinxy (Amphion floridensis),
characterized by two bold yellow bands across the abdomen. (see Plate 6 in the
Peterson MOTH book).

M. Gochfeld

ciprit wrote:

> This thread reminds me of a lep mystery I had last year.  I saw a fat bodied
> creature with non-stop wings feeding on my butterfly bush.  It never landed.
> My first thought was hummingbird until I realized that this thing had
> antennae.  I decided that it was some sort of spreadwinged skipper.  I have
> no idea what color the wings were, but there was a bit of yellow in its
> irridescent "fur."  Is sphinx moth in Philadelphia? Is it diurnal?
>
> Christina
>
> Doug Yanega wrote:
>
> > A moth, similar to the ones shown under "Hummingbird Sphinx moth" at
> > http://insects.ucr.edu/entmus/bugfaq.html - but in the UK, obviously a
> > different species, probably genus.
> >
> > Doug Yanega        Dept. of Entomology         Entomology Research Museum
> > Univ. of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
> > phone: (909) 787-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
> >            http://insects.ucr.edu/staff/yanega.html
> >   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
> >         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82


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