Google
WWW Moth Photographers Group website only

Digital Guide to Moth Identification



  7796 -- Hermit Sphinx Moth -- Sphinx eremitus
Photographs are the copyrighted property of each photographer listed. Contact individual photographers for permission to use for any purpose.


Distribution:

From the Canadian Maritime Provinces west to Manitoba, and southward to Arkansas and North Carolina. Its distribution is patchy in the southern portions of its range and may be missing from many areas. It is rare in Maryland, recorded only from the western Appalachians.

Seasonality and Size:

Found in July and August in the north and perhaps rather earlier in the south. Wingspan 6.5-7.5 cm.

Larva and Host Plants:

Larva feed on plants in the mint family (bee-balm, basil, bugle-weed, mints and sage/salvia and monarda). A chocolate brown "hornworm," but some forms are mottled with green. Early and middle instars have a "horn" on the 2nd thoracic segment, later instars have a "hump" there. There is a large black "eye" on 2nd and 3rd thoracic segments, and very small pale circles on abdominal segments.

Field Marks:

  • forewing gray-brown with black dashes and incomplete zigzag lines
  • reniform spot white, may be double
  • hindwing black with two distinct, broad white bands

    • Similar Species:

  • 7793 - Plebian Sphinx Moth, Paratraea plebeja
  • hindwing dark gray with obscure black median band

    • © Janice Stiefel 5th instar, 2.5 in. - © Janice Stiefel © Gerald Fauske
    7996 - Hermit Sphinx - 7cm - © Jim Vargo

    		7793 - Plebian Sphinx - 7cm - © Jim Vargo
    References
    USA Distribution Map at BMNA

    Covell Field Guide p.34; Pl. 5(4, male)

    MONA Fascicle 21, p.55; Pl. 3(5, male)

    Handfield's Papillons du Québec p.269; Pl. 51(7796, female)

    Wagner's Caterpillars of Eastern North America p.257

    Bill Oehlke's Species Page


    Data compiled by Nolie Schneider from references noted. See the Books Page for bibliographic and ordering information.





    Moth Photographers Group  at the  Mississippi Entomological Museum  at   Mississippi State University

    Send suggestions, or submit photographs to Webmaster -- Moth Photographers Group

    Files/Live/Species/7000/7796.shtml -- 12/20/2005