Moth Miscellany, Part 1: Sphingidae

In the bygone days of July 2023, I attended an event with the Long Point Basin Land Trust which was all about exploring the diversity of moths. I was unable to attend the night-time event where moths were attracted to sheets and photographed and observed in their element, but I was very excited to be able to observe and photograph many species of moths that were caught in traps and released the next morning. In a series of posts I plan to explore the diversity of the moths of Southern Ontario via the subset of moths that I was fortunate enough to observe and photograph. I’m going to go Family by Family in no particular taxonomic order, but rather when each Family’s post is completed. So here goes for the first one!

Sphinx Moths, or Hawk Moths (Family Sphingidae) are some of the largest moths in our area and are quite stunning to see. This family includes almost 1500 named species worldwide, and some very surprising members such as the Hummingbird Hawkmoths which are day-flying nectar feeders that look shockingly like insect hummingbirds. Larval Sphinx Moths are often called “Hornworms” because of the projections on some of their heads which resemble horns. Some hornworms are well known for their destructive feeding habits such as the Tomato/Tobacco Hornworm (Manduca sexta). Adult Sphinx moths feed at flowers with their long proboscis (Beadle and Leckie 2012).

SPHINGIDAE GALLERY:

BONUS SPHINGIDAE LARVAE GALLERY:

References:

Beadle, David and Leckie, Seabrooke 2012. Peterson Field Guide to Moths of Northeastern North America. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.