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Blind Sphinx Moth
Paonias excaecatus
43.6515, -72.927
Field Notes
Description:
2.5" - 3" wingspan (55-85 mm) on average.
Many shades of tan and brown to forest green patterning fore wings; hind wings contain some tan, but are mostly rosy pink to pastel orange with a black outlined blue-gray "eye spot" on each.
Thick abdomen, thicker thorax with greenish brown hair, almost like a coat.
Pronounced pectinate antennae.
Habitat:
"River margins and low ground, where willows grow." - According to the iPhone app Audubon: Butterflies (smartphone versions of Audubon guides, available from Green Mountain Digital, have been indispensable tools throughout my every semester in college).
Caterpillars feed on a large variety of deciduous trees and shrubs. Mendon, Vermont, where this specimen was found, is a perfect habitat for the critters.
Notes:
Close relatives of this moth include Cerisy's Sphinx (Smerinthus cerisyi), whose blue-gray spots include black dots ("pupils") within, and the Twin-spotted Sphinx (Smerinthus jamaicensis), whose blue-gray spots have a black line running through the center of each. The reason this Sphinx is "blind" is due to a lack of any black markings (or "pupils") within the "eye" spots.
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