Northern pine sphinx

Lapara bombycoides

''Lapara bombycoides'', the northern pine sphinx is a moth of the family Sphingidae. The species was first described by Francis Walker in 1856.
Lapara bombycoides Attracted to an incandescent porch light. Warm night, mid-70s F (cooled down later), and humid. There are few reports from Minnesota of this large moth in spite of the abundance of suitable larval host plants (pines, tamaracks). Geotagged,Lapara bombycoides,Lepidoptera,Northern pine sphinx,Summer,United States,gray moth,insect,moth,sphinx moth

Appearance

The wingspan is 45–60 mm. It is a variable species. The forewing upperside is darker than in similar ''Lapara coniferarum'' and the antemedian lines are more distinct.

Distribution

It is known from coniferous and mixed coniferous forests in southern Canada as well as north-eastern Alberta and central Saskatchewan. In the eastern half of the United States it is found from extreme north-eastern North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York north through Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine and south in the Appalachian Mountains from New Jersey to western North Carolina, with scattered ranges as far south as Florida.

Behavior

Adults are on wing from mid-June to mid-July in Canada.

The larvae feed on various pine species, including ''Pinus resinosa'', ''Pinus rigida'' and ''Pinus sylvestris'' as well as ''Larix laricina''.

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

Taxonomy
KingdomAnimalia
DivisionArthropoda
ClassInsecta
OrderLepidoptera
FamilySphingidae
GenusLapara
SpeciesL. bombycoides
Photographed in
United States of America