Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: My Beautiful White Lined Sphinx Moth., 1 by TexasPuddyPrint

TexasPuddyPrint wrote:
Frostweed,

Both of you are great at moth identification!!! Ya'll were able to distinguish the differences!!!

You have a White-Lined Moth and Sherry has a Banded Sphinx. Nice to see such similar moths on the same thread.

For the rest of us that think they all look alike (I tend to say that about the brown skipper butterflies) the easiest way to distinguish the two moths is to look at the stripe going down the middle of the body.

WLS has a broken looking line that is marked with white, black and brown
BS has a solid thick line

WLS head markings consists of four lines (or two unfilled elongated trianglular designs)
BS has two thick lines

WLS has slightly dark rings around the abdomen and no visible side stripes
BS has distinct light rings around the abdomen and visible light colored side stripes

White-Lined Sphinx (Hyles lineata)
http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species?l=3477

Banded Sphinx (Eumorpha fasciatus)
http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species?l=3449

~ Cat

ps...this is one of the White Lined Sphinx moths that I get around the garage light. Out here they tend to look more brownish green than a dark army green.


This message was edited May 29, 2009 10:38 AM