Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Clickable Guide
Moths Butterflies Flies Caterpillars Flies Dragonflies Flies Mantids Cockroaches Bees and Wasps Walkingsticks Earwigs Ants Termites Hoppers and Kin Hoppers and Kin Beetles True Bugs Fleas Grasshoppers and Kin Ticks Spiders Scorpions Centipedes Millipedes

Calendar
Upcoming Events

Photos of insects and people from the 2024 BugGuide gathering in Idaho July 24-27

Moth submissions from National Moth Week 2024

Photos of insects and people from the 2022 BugGuide gathering in New Mexico, July 20-24

Photos of insects and people from the Spring 2021 gathering in Louisiana, April 28-May 2

Photos of insects and people from the 2019 gathering in Louisiana, July 25-27

Photos of insects and people from the 2018 gathering in Virginia, July 27-29


Previous events


TaxonomyBrowse
Info
ImagesLinksBooksData

Species Manduca sexta - Carolina Sphinx - Hodges#7775

Carolina Sphinx caterpillar - Manduca sexta is it a butter too? - Manduca sexta Tomato Horned Caterpillar - Manduca sexta Carolina Sphinx - Manduca sexta Carolina Sphinx - Manduca sexta Huge gray noctuoid - Manduca sexta Tobacco Hornworm Caterpillar? - Manduca sexta Tomatoe chompper   - Manduca sexta
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 Sphinginae
Tribe Sphingini
Genus Manduca
Species sexta (Carolina Sphinx - Hodges#7775)
Hodges Number
7775
Other Common Names
Six-spotted Sphinx Moth
Tobacco Hornworm (caterpillar)
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Manduca sexta (Linnaeus, 1763)
Sphinx sexta Linnaeus, 1763
Explanation of Names
SEXTA: meaning six; there are six orangish-yellow spots on each side of the abdomen in adults.
Size
Wingspan 90-120 mm.
Larva to 81 mm.
Identification
Adult: Large. Forewing gray with indistinct black lines and brown shading; usually has six pairs of yellow spots on abdomen.
Hindwing small, banded black and white, with two black zigzag median lines very close together


Larva: large green body; dorsal "horn" (usually curved and orange, pink or red) on terminal abdominal segment; up to seven oblique whitish lateral lines, edged with black on upper borders.

The similar looking Tomato Hornworm, Manduca quinquemaculata, has eight v-shaped stripes and a straight blue-black horn. These caterpillars are often confused and misidentified.
Range
Florida to Massachusetts, west through southern Ontario, Michigan, and Minnesota to Colorado and California. Ranges south through Mexico, West Indies, neotropics to Argentina.
Habitat
Varied, including fields, agricultural lands.
Season
The main flight period is May to October; year round in Florida.
Food
Larvae feed on leaves of potato, tomato, tobacco, pepper, egg Plant, jimson weeed, etc. (Nightshade family--Solanaceae).
Adults take nectar from deep-throated flowers, such as Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica), moonflower (Calonyction aculeata), and petunia (Petunia hybrida).
Life Cycle
Several generations per year in the southern states; two generations per year farther north; larval development averages twenty days.
Mature larvae drop to the ground and pupate underground.
1. first instar caterpillar. 2. later caterpillar. 3. pupa. 4. adult female
Remarks
Can be a pest of crops.
They rapidly excrete ingested alkaloids before a toxic dose can accumulate. Small amounts of nicotine from tobacco plants that do get into the haemolymph cannot cross the ion-impereable neural sheath and are eliminated via the Malphigian tubules.(1)
Tobacco plants will synthesize and transport alkaloids from the roots to the leaves when herbivory is detected that negatively affects this moth. But when they are infected with the root-feeding nematode, Meloidogyne incognita, this synthesis doesn't occur, leaving the plant susceptible to attack.(2)
See Also
Manduca quinquemaculata (Five-spotted Hawk Moth) is similar as is its caterpillar, the Tomato Hornworm (below).

Ceratomia catalpae (Catalpa Sphinx) adult is similar
Print References
Covell, C.V. 1984. Peterson Field Guides: Eastern Moths. Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 32; plates 1, 3. (3)
Himmelman, J. 2002. Discovering Moths: Nighttime Jewels in Your Own Backyard. Down East Books. plate A-2. (4)
Hodges, R.W., 1971. The Moths of America North of Mexico, Fascicle 21. The Wedge Entomological Research Foundation. p. 29; plate 1, fig. 7. (5)
Powell, J.A. & P.A. Opler 2009. Moths of Western North America. University of California Press. plate 40, fig. 5; p. 244. (6)
Salsbury, G.A. & S.C. White. Insects in Kansas. Kansas Dept. of Agriculture. p. 324. (7)
Wagner, D.L. 2005. Caterpillars of Eastern North America. Princeton University Press. p. 248 (8)
Works Cited
1.Insect-Plant Biology
L.M. Schoonhoven, T. Jermy, and J.J.A. Van Loon. 1998. Chapman and Hall.
2.Insect Ecology: Behavior, Populations and Communities
P. W. Price, R. F. Denno, M. D. Eubanks. 2011. Cambridge University Press.
3.Peterson Field Guides: Eastern Moths
Charles V. Covell. 1984. Houghton Mifflin Company.
4.Discovering Moths: Nighttime Jewels in Your Own Backyard
John Himmelman. 2002. Down East Books.
5.The Moths of America North of Mexico Fascicle 21 Sphingidae
Ronald W. Hodges. 1971. The Wedge Entomological Research Foundation.
6.Moths of Western North America
Powell and Opler. 2009. UC Press.
7.Insects in Kansas
Glenn A. Salsbury and Stephan C. White. 2000. Kansas Dept. of Agriculture.
8.Caterpillars of Eastern North America
David L. Wagner. 2005. Princeton University Press.
9.Pacific Northwest Moths
10.North American Moth Photographers Group
11.BOLD: The Barcode of Life Data Systems
12.Butterflies of North America