Subject: Sphix Moth
Location: Northern Wisconsin
July 20, 2017 10:33 am
I photographed this moth in late July (July 19) in Vilas County Wisconsin (northern WI). It looks like a Big Poplar Moth, but it’s coloring is not quite right. Can you help identify it?
Signature: Julie Draves
Dear Julie,
We verified the identity of your Modest Sphinx, Pachysphinx modesta, on Sphingidae of the Americas. It is also commonly called the Poplar Sphinx. A similar looking, related species in the same genus, Pachysphinx occidentalis, is commonly called the Big Poplar Sphinx, but it is a western species not reported in Wisconsin according to Sphingidae of the Americas.