Paonias excaecatus

Taxobox
name = Blinded Sphinx


image_width = 250px
image_caption = Adult specimen
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Insecta
ordo = Lepidoptera
unranked_familia = Macrolepidoptera
superfamilia = Bombycoidea
familia = Sphingidae
subfamilia = Sphinginae
genus = "Paonias"
species = "P. excaecatus"
binomial = "Paonias excaecatus"
binomial_authority = (J. E. Smith, 1797)

The blinded sphinx ("Paonias excaecatus") is a moth of the family Sphingidae. Adult moths are nocturnal; after a brief bout of activity after dusk, they prefer the later hours of the night it seems (Fullard & Napoleone 2001).

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. doi|10.1006/anbe.2001.1753 [http://www.erin.utoronto.ca/~w3full/reprints/FullNapolDielAB.pdf PDF fulltext]

Blinded Sphinx eggs are greenish-yellow and small. Hornworms hatch after about 8 days. Primary food sources for blinded sphinx hornworms are deciduous trees such as willows, birch and cherries, as well as shrubberies. Like the rest of the Sphingidae family, they shallowly burrow into soil to pupate. Once they leave their pupa, the adults almost immediately mate. Adult blinded sphinxes do not feed.

External links

* [http://www.silkmoths.bizland.com/spexcaec.htm Blinded Sphinx] Life Cycle