The Sphingidae of Iowa

Please help me improve this site by sending sighting data (species; location [county]; date) to Bill Oehlke. Images are also greatly appreciated and will be used and credited (with permission) on county pages. I will attempt to identify any Sphingidae larvae or adults that are unknown to you.

Aellopos titan, Marshalltown, Iowa, September 2005, courtesy of John Jude.

Aellopos titan is not reported on the U.S.G.S. website for Iowa. The image by John Jude, however, is unmistakeable. This species flies into the state occasionally as a migrant stray in the fall.

Hylkes lineata, Marshalltown, Iowa, 6:00 pm, September 23, 2005, courtesy of John Jude.

During the summer of 2008 I received many images of Hyles euphorbiae larvae from western counties. This introduced species (to control leafy spurge) continues to expand its range.

I suspect the following species might also fly in Iowa, but they are not listed on U.S.G.S. If you see any live specimens of these species, please let me know. The Sphingidae are strong fliers and adults often range beyond their reproductive zones.

Agrius cingulata possible stray
Dolba hyloeus possibly in eastern counties
Lapara bombycoides possibly in eastern counties
Sphinx franckii possibly in southern counties
Sphinx gordius possibly in eastern counties
Sphinx luscitiosa possibly in eastern counties
Sphinx poecila possibly in northeastern counties
Erinnyis ello possible stray
Erinnyis obscura possible stray
Hemaris gracilis possibly in northeastern counties
Eumorpha fasciatus unlikely stray
Darapsa versicolor possibly in southeastern counties

Enjoy some of nature's wonderments, giant silk moth cocoons. These cocoons are for sale winter and fall. Beautiful Saturniidae moths will emerge the following spring and summer. Read Actias luna rearing article. Additional online help available.

Eggs of many North American species are offered during the spring and summer. Occasionally summer Actias luna and summer Antheraea polyphemus cocoons are available. Shipping to US destinations is done from with in the US.

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This page is brought to you by Bill Oehlke and the WLSS. Pages are on space rented from Bizland. If you would like to become a "Patron of the Sphingidae Site", contact Bill.

Please send sightings/images to Bill. I will do my best to respond to requests for identification help.

Show appreciation for this site by clicking on flashing butterfly to the left. The link will take you to a page with links to many insect sites.

Individual county pictoral checklists (moths): Counties will be completed as sightings arrive. Currently only those in red are active.

Northwestern Iowa

Lyon Sioux Plymouth Woodbury Monona

Osceola O'Brien Cherokee Ida Crawford

Dickinson Clay Buena Vista Sac Carroll

Emmet Palo Alto Pocahontas Calhoun Greene

Kossuth Humboldt Webster Story Boone

Individual county pictoral checklists (moths): Counties will be completed as sightings arrive. Currently only those in red are active.

Northeastern Iowa

Worth Cerro Gordo Franklin Black Hawk Marshall

Mitchell Floyd Butler Buchanan Tama

Howard Chickasaw Bremer Delaware Benton

Winneshiek Fayette Hardin Dubuque Linn

Allamakee Clayton Grundy Jackson Jones

Individual county pictoral checklists (moths): Counties will be completed as sightings arrive. Currently only those in red are active.

Southwestern Iowa

Harrison Polk Warren Clarke

Shelby Pottawattomie Mills Lucas Ringgold

Audubon Cass Montgomery Fremont Decatur

Guthrie Adair Adams Page Wayne

Dallas Madison Union Taylor

Individual county pictoral checklists (moths): Counties will be completed as sightings arrive. Currently only those in red are active.

Southeastern Iowa

Jasper Clinton Marion Lucas Wayne

Poweshiek Scott Mahaska Monroe Appanoose

Iowa Muscatine Keokuk Wapello Davis

Johnson Louisa Washington Jefferson Van Buren

Cedar Des Moines Henry Lee

Individual county pictoral checklists (caterpillars): Counties will be completed as sightings arrive. Currently only those in red are active.

Hyles euphorbiae, Panama (Shelby County), Iowa, July 28, 2007,
courtesy of Jenny Schechinger.

Jenny writes, "I just wanted to report that on 7/28/07 I found over a dozen of these caterpillars in my front yard! They have since disappeared- which i just learned from your website that they pupate in the ground. I live in Western Iowa in Shelby county just north of the town of Panama. It sounds like they are a rare find, so I'm excited to have found them."

Individual county pictoral checklists (caterpillars): Counties will be completed as sightings arrive. Currently only those in red are active.

Northwestern Iowa

Lyon Sioux Plymouth Woodbury Monona

Osceola O'Brien Cherokee Ida Crawford

Dickinson Clay Buena Vista Sac Carroll

Emmet Palo Alto Pocahontas Calhoun Greene

Kossuth Humboldt Webster Story Boone

Northeastern Iowa

Worth Cerro Gordo Franklin Black Hawk Marshall

Mitchell Floyd Butler Buchanan Tama

Howard Chickasaw Bremer Delaware Benton

Winneshiek Fayette Hardin Dubuque Linn

Allamakee Clayton Grundy Jackson Jones

Southwestern Iowa

Harrison Polk Warren Clarke

Shelby Pottawattomie Mills Lucas Ringgold

Audubon Cass Montgomery Fremont Decatur

Guthrie Adair Adams Page Wayne

Dallas Madison Union Taylor

Individual county pictoral checklists (larvae): Counties will be completed as sightings arrive. Currently only those in red are active.

Southeastern Iowa

Jasper Clinton Marion Lucas Wayne

Poweshiek Scott Mahaska Monroe Appanoose

Iowa Muscatine Keokuk Wapello Davis

Johnson Louisa Washington Jefferson Van Buren

Cedar Des Moines Henry Lee

You can access checklists for other states, and even for other countries in the Americas (North, Central and South) via Sphingidae of the Americas.

This website has been created and is maintained by Bill Oehlke without government or institutional financial assistance. All expenses, ie., text reference support material, webspace rental from Bizland, computer repairs/replacements, backups systems, software for image adjustments (Adobe Photoshop; L-View), ftp software, anti-virus protection, scanner, etc. are my own.

I very much appreciate all the many images that have been sent to me, or of which I have been granted permission to copy and post from other websites. All images on this site remain the property of respective photographers.

If you would like to contribute to the maintenace of this website by sending a contribution to

Bill Oehlke
Box 476
155 Peardon Road
Montague, Prince Edward Island, C0A1R0
Canada

Your donation would be much appreciated and would be used for
1) paying for webspace rental;
2) paying for computer maintenance and software upgrades;
3) purchases of additional text reference material (journals and books) in anticipation of expanding the site to a worldwide Sphingidae site;
4) helping to pay my daughter's tuition (completed spring 2013); with anything left over going to humanitarian aid.

If you are mailing a check from USA, please use $1.25 postage (2015 rate). Donations can also be made through Paypal via the button below.

Enjoy one of nature wonderments: Giant silkmoths (Saturniidae) cocoons to yield large and colourful moths in the spring and summer.