Hawkmoths

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.

Long-tongued hawkmoths are the documented pollinators: drawn at night by the intense fragrance, they hover at the long pendulous white trumpets and probe them for nectar.

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.

A larval food plant for some moths, consistent with its role in old meadow systems.

The long-spurred, nodding flowers are a classic match for hawkmoths, whose long tongues reach the deep nectar at the spur tips at dusk.

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.