ID'ing Moths Is Hard

In honor of National Moth Week here is a short moth ID exercise. Have Fun!

Here are four more moths we saw while mothing at Edie's. See if you can identify the species of each.

Look at those "eyes", very distinctive. This should be an easy one.

Another one with underwing "eyes", although it looks a bit different, more robust. The overall shape is a clue. Good luck!

Another one with "eyes".  Hmmm ...

And another, although this seems to have clearwings. Perhaps a clue?

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Ok, ready for the answers?

1. Blinded Sphinx.
2. Blinded Sphinx.
3. Blinded Sphinx.
4. Blinded Sphinx.

They are all the same species. Only the second looks like the moth in the field guide. The other there are worn, the last considerably so. Only the second has the canonical 'Sphinx' shape.

Here's the field guide page for Blinded Sphinx.

Reproduced from the Peterson Field Guide to Moths of Northeastern North America
by David Beadle and Seabrooke Leckie*.

When I was working out the ID's I truly thought they were four different moths. And I only found the second in the field guide. It was driving me crazy, the first one should have been a slam dunk, with that distinctive eye pattern. After paging through the field guide, all 600 pages, twice, I gave up and asked Patty (she had already worked through here images of that night). And she told me, Blinded Sphinx.

Hmmm ... maybe moth ID isn't hard after all. I was just doing it wrong.

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* If you are at all interested in moths this is the field guide to get. Highly recommended.