Moon Flowers, Carolina Sphinx Moths,
& Other Big Insects In My Yard

    I grow Moon Flowers that climb up onto my deck out back.  The start blooming as the sun sets.  The blooms are white and quite large.  Here is a photo of some of them blooming, with my foot included to give an idea of their size.

    Carolina sphinx moths, which are often mistaken for hummingbirds, are attracted to these blossoms.  Here is a photo of a sphinx moth visiting some of my moon flowers on the fence around my deck and pool.

    Here is a sphinx moth feeding on one of the moon flowers that grow up on my deck:

    This sphinx so enjoyed the moon nectar that it was not deterred by my sticking my finger in and touching it.

    Look at the length of the tube through which the moth's proboscis must travel to reach the nectar:

And here you can see the Sphinx' proboscis reaching into the moon flower to harvest nectar.  My colleague Debbie Long, who also grows moon flowers, took this picture.  Notice that her Sphinx has a pinkish rather then golden markings.

    Late one afternoon I was sitting on the deck watching a sphinx moth visiting the moon flowers which had just started opening.  When I saw the moth crawl right into one, I knew I could capture it.  I just walked up and closed the flower and took the moth indoors for some photos, after sacrificing it.  Here is a close up of the moth, with most of its proboscis cropped out.  I have seen much larger sphinx moths, but this is the only one I have ever captured.  I have often captured the caterpillar, which is a serious pest for the tomato or tobacco farmer.  

And here is a picture of this moth with the proboscis included.  The proboscis is not quite fully extended, but you can see 7 cm of its length.  The body of this moth is 5 cm long.

Here is a sphinx with pink markings from my deck:

Here is an imperial moth that my wife found along the roadside In September of 2005.  I found another in our yard in July of 2006.

And here they are on my bedroom wall with a big hornet a dragonfly, and a very big Polyphemus moth my son caught :

CS:  Carolina Sphinx
DF:  Dragon Fly
H:  Hornet
IM:  Inmperial Moth
PM:  Antheraea polyphemus, Polyphemus Moth.  This specimen has a wing-span of 6 inches.  Here is a close-up of PM on the right and a 4 cm long eyed click beetle.

    In early August of 2006 I was walking in my yard and to my surprise saw a curious insect carrying, in flight, a bumble bee.  It landed on the chain-link fence around my pool, and stayed there, its proboscis in the bee, long enough for me to get a photo.  My daughter Athena identified it as a robber fly (hanging thief, Diogmites).  Strange looking, isn't it:

Butterflies and Moths of North America -- Montana State University, great site.
More Photos of the Carolina Sphinx
John Himmelman's Moths Page -- lots of photos here
Luna Moth -- I haven't seen one of these in years, but one of my colleagues saw one recently.
Garden Spider -- These catch and eat Carolina Sphinx moth.
whatsthatbug.com

Contact Information for the Webmaster,
Dr. Karl L. Wuensch



This page most recently revised on 24. June 2007.