Weird green flying insect
Hi there,
I live in manchester uk and my daughter seen this strange looking insect whilst walking home from college. Ive never seen anything like it before and cant find anything even resembling it. do you know what it is please as im really curious now. Many Thanks
Rachael

hi Rachael,
This is a Lime Hawkmoth, Mimas tiliae. If you want additional information, visit the UK Moths website.

Beautiful Moth – Oops!
HI guys! Just want to know if you know what type of Moth this is? We are having trouble with our email and you may not have even recvd. the last one I sent. Or I’m just not being patient enough ) Thank you!!!!!
Dianne

Dianne’s original email
(04/04/2008) Beautiful Moth
Hello,
We love your site!! We really appreciate the time you have put into it. Yesterday, this Moth landed in our back yard. We were able to enjoy him for most of the day ) Could you please tell us what kind of moth he is? We looked on your site and found some similar but we’re still not sure. Oh, we live in N. Ca. near Sacramento. Thank you so much!
Dianne

Hi Dianne,
We had a very rough time in April and many more emails went unanswered. Thanks for resending your lovely photo of a One Eyed Sphinx, Smerinthus cerisyi, also known as Cerisy’s Sphinx.

I think this is a Hummingbird Clearwing Moth?
Is that correct? It hovered on my lilac for a long time!
Patti Bell

Hi Patti,
We can see that your Nessus Sphinx, Amphion floridensis, is hovering around the lilacs in your lovely photo, but we would like to have known where your lilacs are planted. We know lilacs are currently blooming in Ohio and Massachusetts, so we are guessing you are further north. The Nessus Sphinx is not one of the Hummingbird Clearwings as its wings are brown and the white stripes and tufting on the abdomen are identification features. There are photos available on Bill Oehlke’s awesome website.

Photo from Dominican Republic
This guy was so spectacular, about 5 inches long and happily stayed with us all day. Love your site and would love to know what type of moth this is. Thanks
Wendy

Hi Wendy,
Your moth is a Rustic Sphinx, Manduca rustica. According to Bill Oehlke, the Rustic Sphinx: “flies in warm temperate, subtropical, and tropical forests and second growth woodlands from Virginia to south Florida, west to Arkansas, Texas, southern New Mexico, Arizona, and southern California and Puerto Rico and Cuba, and then further south through Central America to Brazil : Mato Grosso (JvB), Para, Roraima; Bolivia and Uruguay.”

Striped Morning Spinx Moth?
Hi. I live in San Diego, and this morning it was almost as though we were under attack by moths. Everywhere. Like a scene from The Birds, all over town. I have a slight insect phobia, so it was just a little creepy. Most of them were much smaller than the one in the photo attached, and appeared to be of a different type, but were hovering above the flowering bushes and trees sucking the nectar. At any rate, there were some that were very hummingbird-like, and I think I was successful using your site to identify this little fellow (lady?) resting on my black-eyed susan vine. Is there a time of year for a sudden hatch-out? Where are they coming from, and what are they doing? Besides eating and mating, at any rate? And what damage do their caterpillar babies do? In my fantasy world they would eat the aphids and whitefliess that are plaguing my roses, but I suppose what they really eat are fuschias and black eyed susan vines, huh? Thanks,
Kel in San Diego

Hi Kel,
Your identification of a Striped Morning Sphinx or White Lined Sphinx, Hyles lineata, is correct. We expect a population explosion of the Striped Morning Sphinx and its caterpillar this year in Southern California because of our unseasonal rains and the plethora of desert vegetation. Our good friend and neighbor, Julian Donahue, a lepidopterist, just sent us the following fact list on Hyles lineata: “1. This is So. Cal’s most common hawk moth, and are especially common in the deserts, where hundreds of moths can come to a single light in one night. 2. In “good” desert years, the larvae can be so abundant that desert highways are slick with their crushed bodies. 3. In the desert, larvae mostly prefer evening primroses (Camissonia and Oenothera), which are also in the fuschsia family (Onagraceae)–demonstrating once again that moths are excellent botanists! Tuttle (2007, The Hawk Moths of North America) also reports that in the West the larvae also feed on members of the plant family Nyctaginaceae [e.g., Abronia (sand verbena) and Mirabilis (four o'clock)]. 4. Native Americans have harvested the larvae as food. 5. United States’ most widely distributed hawk moth, occuring in every state except Alaska, as far north as southern Canada, from Nova Scotia to British Columbia. 6. Pupation occurs in a loose cocoon of silk on or just below the surface of the ground. 7. Larvae have several color forms, ranging from green to black. 8. Two other related species in North America: the more widely distributed but much more northern Hyles gallii, which also occurs in Europe and feeds on similar hostplants, and Hyles euphorbiae, a native of Europe and Eurasia that has been introduced with only limited success to control pest species of spurge (Euphorbia species) in north central and northeastern U.S. and adjacent Canada. Julian”