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Sphinx chersis Moth Inflates its Wings
We saw this weird creature at my mom's house on an olive tree. His wings are tiny.
Turns out he is a Sphinx chersis Moth, also known as hawk moths. The fully-grown caterpillars pupate in burrows in the soil.
As you can see in this photo his wings are suddenly much longer.
When the moth first comes out from its pupal shell, the wings are short, little, wrinkled, limp stubs hanging from the abdomen.
The moth must climb and hang so that the body can pump fluids into the wing veins to expand them.
Here the moth has moved to the other side of the tree to get out of the wind.
Side view of the moth and wings.
Amazing creature.
The wings change so quickly.
Now he is looking more moth like.
Side view just for fun.
Once the wings are fully inflated, the moth assumes a "normal" resting pose. The fluid in the veins hardens and the wings are ready for flight.
We watched this guy for almost an hour. Nature is truely amazing!
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User Comments
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I agree, amazing indeed. They are good sized moths. The wing span can be 3 9/16 - 5 1/8 inches. Thanks so much for stopping in and for your comment. Have a great night. |
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OK, these are some VERY cool pics! How fascinating to be able to see this take place in your photos! Thanks so much for sharing! |
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I found it amazing, I had never seen a moth inflate its wings. I have seen the timelaps on butterflys but never on moths. I was lucky to be there when moth came up the tree. Thanks so much for stopping by to check it out and for your wonderful comment. have a great night. |
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Sometimes we get lucky and mother nature lets us have a glimpse of some truly amazing events. |
This is amazing, what a great serious of photographs! |
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So glad you enjoyed them. Thanks so much for stopping in and for your nice comment. Have a good one. |
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Awesome shots! I have never seen a moth do that.
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Thanks so much. I had never seen one do that either. At first I though the poor thing was deformed but it didn't take long for the wings to start getting bigger. It was amazing to watch. So glad you enjoyed the photos. Thanks for stopping by and for your great comment. Have a good night |
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Awesome! |
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WOW! Thanks so glad you enjoyed it. It was fun to watch. Thanks for dropping by and for your nice comment. Have a great day. |
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Thanks so much for the post and pics. I have never seen anything like it. Was scary at 1st then after it filled out...not so bad. |
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So glad you enjoyed it Okie, It is kind of weird looking with its wings all tiny. But the more they grow the more it looks like a giant moth. Thanks so much for stopping in and for your comment. Have a good one. |
how cool, i have never seen a moth do this. |
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Thanks so much, so glad you enjoyed them. This is a first for me too.:) Have a good one and thanks for dropping by and for your comment. |
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I'm shaking my head in disbelief. Incredible shots on all these blogs. Beautiful nature - there IS a God!! |
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Thank you so very much, what a lovely complement you have given me. So glad you are enjoying the photos. This is one of the more cool and interesting posts that I have made. I also like the posts about the bats, so fun to see and hard to capture. There are a few on lightning that were a lucky break as well. Photography is so cool to go back and see things you didn't have time to really see in the first place. Thanks so much for your visit and comment. Havea great day |
Every day is blue day. If you encounter a setback, please look up to the sky, if only the sky is blue, you don't lose the hope. |
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Yes, sky is blue... all is fine unless the sun sets, then the sky is black... hum is that bad... no, the sky will be blue in the morning again. Thanks for stopping by. |
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but is this the butterfly species ? |
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It is actually a moth. A very big moth. I sent the photos to a moth expert on line and he told me that due to the location and the photos it was sphinx chersis. You can read more about them on wiki here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphinx_chersis It makes sense to me, according to wiki, the larve feed on plants in the olive family. We found the moth on an olive tree. |
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You just don't get it do you. Really, no links to shoes or anything. |
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It does not matter if you log out as sports-lover and back in as gochristiansale, you are still a spammer and I have reported you as I always do so really why are you wasting time putting spam links on my posts? |
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Last two comments by me were to spammers, the spam comments have been deleted. |
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Oh Wow !! !!! Nice !! :-) ! |
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Thanks so much, it is one of the cooler things I have seen in the yard, and oddly enough something you can't find many photos of on the web. Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the cool comment. Nature is amazing! |
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Dang, it must be cool to see a lot of wildlife often. Where're you location again? |
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It is cool and I am lucky. I live in the Sonoran Desert Region of Southern Arizona, the moth was in my mom's back yard on an olive tree. We just lucked out being out to see it. Most of seeing wildlife is being lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. |
Amazing creature. He looks huge in the picture!