The Sphingidae of Montana

Please help me improve this site by sending sighting data (species; location [county]; date) to
Bill Oehlke.
Images are also greatly appreciated and will be used and credited (with permission) on county pictoral checklist. see bottom of this page. I will attempt to identify any Sphingidae larvae or adults that are unknown to you.

Waved Sphinx (Ceratomia undulosa
Great ash sphinx (Sphinx chersis)
Wild cherry sphinx (Sphinx drupiferarum)
Vashti sphinx (Sphinx vashti)

Modest sphinx (Pachysphinx modesta)
Big poplar sphinx (Pachysphinx occidentalis)
Blinded sphinx (Paonias excaecata)
Small-eyed sphinx (Paonias myops)
One-eyed sphinx (Smerinthus cerisyi)
Twin-spotted Sphinx (Smerinthus jamaicenis)

Snowberry clearwing (Hemaris diffinis)
Rocky Mountain clearwing (Hemaris senta)

Achemon Sphinx (Eumorpha achemon)

Leafy spurge hawkmoth (Hyles euphorbiae)
Bedstraw hawkmoth (Hyles gallii)
White-lined sphinx (Hyles lineata)
Yellow-banded sphinx (Proserpinus flavofasciata)
Juanita Sphinx (Proserpinus juanita)

Hyles euphorbiae, Great Falls (Cascade Co.), Montana, July 29, 2006, courtesy of Ingrid Ryder.

Individual county checklists: Counties will be completed as sightings arrive. Currently only those in red are active.

This page is brought to you by Bill Oehlke and the WLSS. Pages are on space rented from Bizland. If you would like to become a "Patron of the Sphingidae Site", contact Bill.

Please send sightings/images to Bill. I will do my best to respond to requests for identification help.

Bonnie Hickey (Cashman Nursery), writes, August 2, 2007, "I have enjoyed watching these caterpillars on my Euphorbia mysinites in my yard in Bozeman (Gallatin County), Montana, for the past several summers. They do not feed on the Euphorbia polychroma or griffithii, however. I was planning to remove some of the Euphorbias but have decided to control seedlings with Preen instead so that I can continue to watch all the color stages of these caterpillars in future years!"