Hawaiian Moth
Bugman,
Aloha. We had a interesting moth land on the deck outside our office the other day and despite our best effort we don’t know what type of moth it is (not that any of us are any sort of expert). I think we agree that it’s some sort of sphinx moth, but no one agrees what type. No one saw it flying, so we can’t say much for the movement, but it was strikingly green. We’re not too far from Honolulu in an industrial area. We see black witch moths fairly often, but not usually anything like this one. If you could help us in identifying this one, we’d be grateful.
Matt
Hi Matt,
This is a Yam Hawkmoth, Theretra nessus. You can find information on Bill Oehlke’s wonderful website which indicates that this species is not native, but was introduced to Hawaii.