''Sphinx kalmiae'', the laurel sphinx, is a

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of ...

of the family

Sphingidae The Sphingidae are a family of moths ( Lepidoptera) called sphinx moths, also colloquially known as hawk moths, with many of their caterpillars known as “hornworms”; it includes about 1,450 species. It is best represented in the tropics, ...

Distribution

It is found in the temperate parts of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

and southern

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

east of the Great Plains, in the north it occurs west of the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

Description

The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan ...

is 75–103 mm. Sphinx kalmiae MHNT CUT 2010 0 145 Wakefield Canada male dorsal.jpg, Male dorsal Sphinx kalmiae MHNT CUT 2010 0 145 Wakefield Canada male ventral.jpg, Male ventral Sphinx kalmiae MHNT CUT 2010 0 145 Wakefield Canada female dorsal.jpg, Female dorsal Sphinx kalmiae MHNT CUT 2010 0 145 Wakefield Canada female ventral.jpg, Female ventral

Biology

In Canada, there is one generation per year with adults on wing in June and July. More to the south, there are two generations per year with adults on wing from late May to June and again from July to August. There may be as many as six generations in Louisiana. The

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. Th ...

e feed on ''

Chionanthus ''Chionanthus'' , common name: fringetrees, is a genus of about 150 species of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae. The genus has a wide distribution primarily in the tropics and subtropics, but with three species extending north into te ...

'', ''

Kalmia ''Kalmia'' is a genus of about ten species of evergreen shrubs from 0.2–5 m tall, in the family Ericaceae. They are native to North America (mainly in the eastern half of the continent) and Cuba. They grow in acidic soils, with different s ...

'', ''

Syringa ''Syringa'' is a genus of 12 currently recognized species of flowering woody plants in the olive family or Oleaceae called lilacs. These lilacs are native to woodland and scrub from southeastern Europe to eastern Asia, and widely and commonly ...

'' and '' Fraxinus'' species. They are blue-green or yellow-green with seven diagonal lines that are white edged with black above and usually yellow below.

Taxonomy

English entomologist James Edward Smith named this moth after

, the plant on which its caterpillar was first observed. J.E. Smith & John Abbot. The natural history of the rarer lepidopterous insects of Georgia ... 797. page 73

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References

External links

Moths of North Dakota
Moths of North America Sphinx (genus) Moths described in 1797 {{Sphinginae-stub