Alternate name: Eyed Sphinx
Family: Sphingidae, Sphinx Moths view all from this family
Description Wingspan 2 3/8-3 3/8" (60-85 mm). Fore wings variable, marked with contrasting light and dark gray or tawny brown. Hind wings rosy pink with tawny outer margin and black and blue eyespot. Caterpillar is bluish green and has a few diagonal yellow streaks and a green and yellow horn at rear.
Life Cycle Caterpillar eats willow foliage.
Flight May and June.
Habitat River margins and low ground, where willows grow.
Range Coast to coast in the northern United States and Canada, south along the Rocky Mountains to Arizona, and along the Sierra Mountains to California.
Discussion The more widespread Twin-spotted Sphinx (S. jamaicensis), wingspan 2-2 3/4" (50-70 mm), has red rather than pink on its hind wings, and the blue area in the eyespot is divided by a black line - hence "twin-spotted." The Blind Sphinx (Paonias excaecatus), wingspan 2 3/8-3 1/8" (60-80 mm), has no black center in the blue eyespot - hence "blind" - and has 6-8 toothlike lobes on the outer margin of its fore wings. Its caterpillars feed on apple, birch, and a variety of other trees.
