Sphinx (sphingidés)

Sphingidae (family-level entry)

The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center lists bald cypress as the larval host for the baldcypress sphinx moth (Isoparce cupressi), a Taxodium-feeding member of the hawkmoth family (Sphingidae).

Documented larval host for sphinx (hawk) moths — the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center names the Small-eyed Sphinx and Wild Cherry Sphinx among black cherry's larval-host moths, alongside the Columbia Silkmoth and Promethea Moth.

The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center documents chokecherry as a larval host for sphinx moths including the Small-eyed Sphinx, and an adult-food (nectar) source for the Sequoia Sphinx.

Hosta plantaginea is unusual among hostas for its evening-fragrant night-blooming flowers — the fragrance evolved specifically to attract hawkmoths after dusk; the flower morphology (long tubular corolla) matches the hawkmoth proboscis length.

Evening-blooming fragrance attracts hawkmoths; the fragrant cultivars are particularly worked at dusk and early evening.

Gardenia displays the classic moth-pollination syndrome — white flowers whose sweet scent intensifies at dusk and into the night — and horticultural sources describe sphinx (hawk) moths as visitors. Confidence is plausible rather than documented because this rests on the pollination syndrome and popular horticultural accounts rather than a peer-reviewed pollinator study of this species.

NC State documents pollination by noctuid moths (not sphingid), but late-fall sphinx moths are part of the same cool-weather Lepidoptera community working the bloom. Use as a generic proxy until a noctuid-moth wildlife slug exists in the Plotwright catalog.

Petunia inherits a moth-pollination syndrome from its wild parent Petunia axillaris (pale, fragrant, long-tubed, evening-scented flowers). Pale fragrant garden cultivars retain that scent and are visited by night-flying hawkmoths, though modern bedding hybrids vary widely.

Hummingbird clearwing moths (Hemaris spp., family Sphingidae) work wild bergamot during the day — they're often mistaken for hummingbirds at first glance because of similar size and hovering flight.

The long tubular corolla is well-suited to long-tongued sphinx moths, which work woodland phlox at dusk and dawn during the spring bloom window.