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HornwormsCaterpillar ID
Found this caterpillar on a vine on my porch in south florida. I think its some kind of sphinx moth. Need your help in identification.
Thanks,
Matt

Hi Matt,
We are excited by your photographs which we believe represents a new species for our site, though a true expert might contest our findings. We thought your caterpillars bore a superficial resemblance to the Tersa Sphinx, Xylophanes tersa, so we searched for near relatives in the same genus in Florida. We love Bill Oehlke’s site for Sphinx Moths. We located Xylophanes pluto, which we believe looks similar enough to your caterpillar to be a positive ID. There is no common name for this moth listed, so we are going to dub it the Pluto Sphinx. The near relative, the Tersa Sphinx has three recognized color morphs for the caterpillar, including green.
Related Posts
- Tersa Sphinx (February 11, 2008)
- Xylophanes pluto: Imago and Caterpillar (July 20, 2008)
- Two Caterpillars from Texas: Rothschildia forbesi and Xylophanes pluto (May 6, 2007)
- Tersa Sphinx Caterpillar: Green Morph (June 15, 2007)
- Tersa Sphinx Caterpillars (January 7, 2009)





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