Observation date: July 30, 2019
Submitted by: Reininger
Specimen type: Photograph
Observation notes: Found on a bright, sunny , warm morning crossing a street. Two fields are on either side of the street.
Status: Resident
Verified by: charleseharp
Verified date: March 05, 2023
Coordinator notes: Your identification as the "Spurge Hawkmoth" looks to check out OK in the Powell-Opler book Moths of Western North America but according to the text written on p. 246, it is not recorded farther south than "northern Wyoming" having been an introduced moth from Europe to help control leafy spurge in western Canada. The one they picture (Plate 63.26) is a lateral view and shows it to have a conspicuous posterior red colored "horn" that yours doesn't appear to have. I could also be Hyles gallii ("bedstraw hawkmoth") that is similar and may have a similar looking caterpillar. It is recorded in Colorado. I'm not a moth expert so that's about all I can do with your sighting. Thanks for the submission. Mike
