Twin-spotted Sphinx

Smerinthus jamaicensis · Order: Lepidoptera · Family: Sphingidae

Also called: Twinspot Sphinx, Twin-spotted Sphinx Moth

Damages trees, gardens or crops. The caterpillars feed on a variety of trees and garden plants, so they can damage shade trees, fruit trees and garden vegetation.

Source: Wikipedia

Twin-spotted Sphinx
Photo: unknown, CC0

The adult moth has a wingspan of about 4.5 to 8.3 cm. Males are gray with black and white markings, females are yellow-brown with dark brown and white markings, and both sexes show red hindwings with a pale yellow border that may have one to three eyespot-like patches. Adults are active at night and do not feed.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

Males have gray forewings with black and white markings; females are yellow-brown with dark brown and white markings. Both sexes have red hindwings edged with pale yellow, sometimes showing a blue eyespot or several eyespots divided by black bands.

Source: Wikipedia

Size

Wingspan ranges from 1 ¾ to 3 ¼ inches (4.5 to 8.3 cm).

Source: Wikipedia

What it eats

Caterpillars eat many kinds of plants, including willow, poplar, birch, ash, elm, apple and plum.

Source: Wikipedia

Life cycle

Adults are nocturnal and do not feed.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 42 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Minnesota, Michigan, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, Colorado, Texas, Ohio.

Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.

Source: GBIF

Status: native in North America; native in United States; native in Canada. Source: iNaturalist

Months it is reported in the US

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Source: GBIF

More photos

Twin-spotted Sphinx photo 3
Photo: Laura Gaudette, CC BY
Twin-spotted Sphinx photo 4
Photo: James, CC BY
Twin-spotted Sphinx photo 5
Photo: Alan Kneidel, CC BY
Twin-spotted Sphinx photo 6
Photo: Laura Gaudette, CC BY

Same family (Sphingidae)

White-lined SphinxWhite-lined SphinxHyles lineataDamages trees, gardens or cropsEurasian Hummingbird HawkmothEurasian Hummingbird HawkmothMacroglossum stellatarumSnowberry ClearwingSnowberry ClearwingHemaris diffinisCarolina SphinxCarolina SphinxManduca sextaDamages trees, gardens or cropsHummingbird ClearwingHummingbird ClearwingHemaris thysbeDamages trees, gardens or cropsElephant HawkmothElephant HawkmothDeilephila elpenor

Sources

  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smerinthus_jamaicensis

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-22 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-22.

How this page works

This is one bug's fact sheet. The colored box at the top says whether it is dangerous. Sections below cover how to recognize it, whether it is a pest, and how to deal with it. The US map shows which states have records; tap a state to see other bugs there.

Every fact on Bug FAQ comes from a named source (university extension sites, government agencies, GBIF, iNaturalist, Wikipedia). The source is linked next to each section. If we have no source for something, we leave it out.