The other evening I spied a large moth on the living room wall up where the wall meets the ceiling. It was about 2" wing tip to tip and must have come in while the back door was open. So I got out a stool, shot a pic and started trying to identify it online. It looked like some kind of Sphinx moth but I couldn't find a photo. And as I soon found out, sphinx moths don't all belong to one genus.

So I submitted the sighting report anyway along with the photo and my ID guess to Butterflies and Moths Of North America. Today I got confirmation that it is a sphinx moth, the Mourning Sphinx Moth, Enyo lugibris.



"Flight: All year in the tropics, south Florida, and Louisiana; August-November northward."

"Caterpillar Hosts: Plants in the grape family (Vitaceae) including Vitus, Ampelopsis, and Cissus species." That's interesting to me because there just happen to be two grape vines along the top of the garden. Habitat!

"Range: Northern Argentina and Uruguay north through Central America, the West Indies, and Mexico to Arizona; east to Florida and north to South Carolina. Strays to Arkansas, Michigan, and New York."

How lovely! Thanks for sharing .

Linda

This looks so familiar, I would swear we must've had a stray or two up here as well.
I had some wierd sphinx moth in the house earlier this year but was unable to identify. My pix were not good enough to submit, sadly.

I found one that seems like it may be from the same family, on the road, one early morning dog walk one June. It had an odd shape from a distance. After taking pictures I put it into grass off the road.

That moth is just gorgeous and I love it's 'eye's' on it's wings.

The grandkids found this one. They are pretty but the caterpillars love to devour tomato plants.

Just loving those eyes on both moths

My when my daughter was young she raised the Saturniidae moths, which are the giant silk moths as well as a few sphinx moths. Most of these moths do have eyes on their wings for protection.

PaulF has a picture of the Cecropia which is the largest of this group. I really like the Polyphemus too, pictured below.

Growing Coastal wrote: ↑Mon Nov 23, 2020 8:12 pm I found one that seems like it may be from the same family, on the road, one early morning dog walk one June. It had an odd shape from a distance. After taking pictures I put it into grass off the road.

WOW! That's gorgeous! I will have to see if I can find what it is. My usually starting point probably won't have it as it's US centric but I could check Washington state to see if any ventured down there.

[mention]Growing Coastal[/mention] , yours is the One-Eyed Sphinx Moth:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smerinthus_cerisyi
https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/spe ... us-cerisyi

[mention]Paulf[/mention], yours is a Cecropia Silk Moth:
https://www.insectidentification.org/in ... -Silk-Moth