''Paonias myops'', the small-eyed sphinx, is a

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of ...

of the family

Sphingidae The Sphingidae are a family of moths ( Lepidoptera) called sphinx moths, also colloquially known as hawk moths, with many of their caterpillars known as “hornworms”; it includes about 1,450 species. It is best represented in the tropics, ...

. The species was first described by James Edward Smith in 1797.

Distribution

It is found from south-eastern

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

and westward almost to the

Pacific Coast Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean. Geography Americas Countries on the western side of the Americas have a Pacific coast as their western or southwestern border, except for Panama, where the P ...

. It is also known from

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

Description

The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan ...

is 52–69 mm. Adults are more

nocturnal Nocturnality is an ethology, animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnality, diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have ...

than most sphingids; after an initial bout of activity after dusk, they fly throughout the night. Adults are on wing from June to September in eastern Canada. In New Jersey, there are two generations per year and there are four generations in Louisiana. Paonias myops MHNT CUT 2010 0 494 Michaux State Forest Pennsylvania USA male dorsal.jpg, ''Paonias myops'' ♂ Paonias myops MHNT CUT 2010 0 494 Michaux State Forest Pennsylvania USA male ventral.jpg, ''Paonias myops'' ♂ △ Paonias myops MHNT CUT 2010 0 494 Michaux State Forest Pennsylvania USA female dorsal.jpg, ''Paonias myops'' ♀ Paonias myops MHNT CUT 2010 0 494 Michaux State Forest Pennsylvania USA female ventral.jpg, ''Paonias myops'' ♀ △

Subspecies

*''Paonias myops myops'' *''Paonias myops occidentalis'' Clark, 1919 (Mexico)

References

* Fullard, James H. & Napoleone, Nadia (2001): Diel flight periodicity and the evolution of auditory defences in the Macrolepidoptera. ''Animal Behaviour'' 62(2): 349–368.
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External links

*

on ''National Geographic''. Paonias Moths described in 1797 Moths of North America {{Smerinthini-stub