A moth on my rosebush

[Ptah]

[Cracklin Charlie]

1. Nice!

[Ocelot II]

2. Some kind of hummingbird/hawk moth?

Some species' babies are tomato hornworms, but they're very cool.

[Ptah]

6. Yikes! Are tomato hornworms a threat to peppers?

[Ocelot II]

7. Your moth might not be the hornworm kind -

better identification here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manduca_quinquemaculata Your moth looks stripey and the hornworm kind are more spotted.

[nocoincidences]

3. s/he is just purty.

Definitely picture worthy.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. Gorgeous, my dear Ptah! n/t

[UTUSN]

5. Wow, picture too

[Karadeniz]

8. Oooohhh...!

[2naSalit]

9. I've seen those a couple times...

Believe it or not, at 7,000ft above sea level. They have really weird looking heads. Idon't know what they are.

[Donkees]

10. White-lined Sphinx Moths

White-lined Sphinx Moths can be found from mid-spring until early fall in open areas (parks, gardens, grasslands, scrublands and deserts) throughout North America, from Canada to Central America and the West Indies (they’re also found in Europe). They are considered one of the most common sphinx moths, but there are fewer as you go north. Although they are, like many sphinx moths, more active from dusk to dawn, WLSMs are sometimes (inexplicably) called the “Morning Sphinx.” Sphinx caterpillars are called hornworms because of a spine that adorns their rear end during part or all of their caterpillar-hood (the WLSM caterpillar is related to that bane of gardeners, the Tomato Hornworm). The name “Sphinx” comes from the caterpillar’s habit of rearing its head up when alarmed and looking like an Egyptian sphinx. Sphinx moths are called Hawk Moths in England.

There are about 125 representatives of the Sphinx moth family (Sphingidae) in North America. They can get pretty big, with heavy, spindle-shaped bodies and wingspreads of up to 6 inches. The front pair of wings is often narrow and quite a bit longer than the second pair, and many species have dramatic markings or color blocks on their wings. Sphinxes are strong flyers, difficult to capture, and some can fly 35 mph. Their rapid wing beats, ability to hover, and largish size cause them to be mistaken for hummingbirds in the late afternoon. Sphinx moths do not make sounds, so they don’t need or have ears (tympana); they have large eyes, and they communicate via scent (pheromones).

https://uwm.edu/field-station/white-lined-sphinx-moth/

WLSM caterpillars start at yellow and black or lime green and black and are tremendously variable, (see Bugguide). By happy accident, the BugLady’s 20 year old color slide of an unidentified caterpillar sitting on evening primrose (a favorite WLSM caterpillar food in Wisconsin) turned out to be a WLSM caterpillar.

Besides Evening Primrose, caterpillars are recorded on portulaca, purslane, chickweed, apple, elm, and grape laves and on some garden vegetables.