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For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Species Smerinthus cerisyi - One-eyed Sphinx - Hodges#7822

Smerinthus cerisyi Green Caterpiller - Smerinthus cerisyi One-eyed Sphinx - Hodges#7822 - Smerinthus cerisyi One-eyed Sphinx - Hodges#7822 - Smerinthus cerisyi One-eyed Sphinx (Smerinthus cerisyi) - Smerinthus cerisyi Saskatchewan One-eyed Sphinx - Smerinthus cerisyi One-eyed Sphinx Moth - Smerinthus cerisyi Sphinx moth - Smerinthus cerisyi
Show images of: caterpillars · adults · both
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)
Superfamily Bombycoidea (Silkworm, Sphinx, and Royal Moths)
Family Sphingidae (Sphinx Moths)
Subfamily Smerinthinae
Tribe Smerinthini
Genus Smerinthus
Species cerisyi (One-eyed Sphinx - Hodges#7822)
Hodges Number
7822
Other Common Names
Eyed Sphinx
Willow Sphinx
Cerisy's Sphinx
Cerisy's Eyed Hawk Moth
Numbers
uncommon
Size
wingspan 62-90 mm
Identification
Adult: FW a cryptic mix of pale gray and dark brown with cross vein at end of discal cell; other veins toward outer margin usually outlined in paler brown. HW eyespot blue, usually with black bull's eye in middle, and thick black outer ring; small to large amount of pink shading surrounding eyespot.
Larva: body pale bluish-green or yellowish-green with granular skin, pale lateral diagonal lines, faint red spiracular circles, and very pale longitudinal lines running from the head to a more pronounced anal diagonal line; anal horn red in first instar, becoming blue in later instars; head green, bounded dorsally by pale yellow inverted V
Range
Formerly defined as "coast to coast in northern United States, plus all of Canada (including the arctic) and into Alaska, south in the west to California and across to western Texas, south in the east to Tennessee and Missouri".
Now the populations in California, Washington, Oregon, and most of British Columbia have been split off as a separate species, Smerinthus ophthalmica. Both S. ophthalmica and S. cerisyi occur together in Alberta and portions of the interior mountain West. Where they occur together, the species are nearly impossible to separate.
Update - The Rocky Mountains population is recognized as Smerinthus astarte Strecker, 1885, formerly a synonym of Smerinthus cerisyi, in Kitching et al. (2018).
Habitat
river margins and low ground where food plants grow
Season
adults fly from May to July or August
Food
larvae feed on leaves of pear, plum, poplar, willow
adults do not feed
Life Cycle
one generation per year; overwinters as a pupa; smooth, shiny oval eggs are laid singly or in pairs from June to August
Mated pair; eggs; early instar larva; larva; larvae; adult
Remarks
Mating: female extends scent gland from posterior of abdomen to lure night-flying males; male aligns body at 180 degrees from female during pairing, which continues until the following evening
See Also
Twin-spotted Sphinx (S. jamaicensis) hindwing has blue eyespot divided by black bar
Blinded Sphinx (Paonias excaecatus) hindwing has no black center in blue eyespot - hence "blinded" - and has 6-8 toothlike lobes on outer margin of forewing
Print References
Kitching, I., R. Rougerie, A. Zwick, C. Hamilton, R. St Laurent, S. Naumann, L. Ballesteros Mejia, A. Kawahara, 2018. A global checklist of the Bombycoidea (Insecta: Lepidoptera). Biodiversity Data Journal, 6: e22236.
Internet References
Moth Photographers Group – images of live & pinned adults
BOLD Systems - images of pinned DNA supported specimens
Kitching, I.J., 2019. Sphingidae Taxonomic Inventory, species page
Butterflies & Moths of Southern Vancouver Island - live images of all stages of life cycle
Sphingidae of the Americas - Bill Oehlke's species page
Butterflies and Moths of North America – images of live adults