sphinx moth

I was cleaning up dead leaves from the underside of tithonia patch, and reaching for one it fluttered against my hand. Startled me. It fell to the leaf litter below- a sphinx moth!

I looked it up to identify- the virginia creeper sphinx moth (so the caterpillars eat virginia creeper- that's okay with me!) I put my fingers in front of it so it crawled on my hand, to show my kids.

My eight-year-old was kind of thrilled to hold it. Looks so much larger on her smaller hand!

So very striking. The dark pattern is slightly greenish. It's definitely fuzzy- I couldn't see the antennae- I think it had them folded tight against the head. Its feet very stiff and scratchy on our skin. We admired it for a while, then held it against a leaf and let it be.

You can see how in profile, the mottled pattern makes it look like a dried up, curled leaf! Which is why I touched it by mistake initially.