Five-spotted hawkmoth Manduca quinquemaculata (Haworth, 1803)

National Moth Week is July 18-26!

Moths are amazing creatures. Take photographs and share your moth sightings with us to document the moths where you live.

Family: Sphingidae

Subfamily: Sphinginae

Identification: Abdomen usually has 5 but sometimes 6 pairs of yellow bands. Forewing is blurry brown and gray. Hindwing is banded with brown and white and has 2 well-separated median zigzag bands. Forewing fringes are grayish, not distinctly spotted with white.

Wing Span: 3 9/16 - 5 5/16 inches (9 - 13.5 cm).

Life History: Adults fly at dusk, and females deposit eggs singly on the upper surface of host plant leaves. The caterpillars are called Tomato Hornworms and each has a black horn at the end of the abdomen. Caterpillars have huge appetites for leaves and fruits and can defoliate plants quickly. Fully-grown caterpillars pupate and overwinter in soil burrows.

Flight: . Several broods from February-October in Florida and from April-October in Louisiana, at least two broods from May-October in the rest of the range.

Caterpillar Hosts: Potato, tobacco, tomato, and other plants in the nightshade family (Solanaceae).

Adult Food: Nectar from flowers including Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica), petunia (Petunia hybrida), bouncing bet (Saponaria officinalis), tobacco (Nicotiana), and phlox (Phlox).

Habitat: Tobacco fields, vegetable gardens, and wherever host plants are found.

Range: Mexico north throughout most of the United States and occasionally southern Canada, but it is uncommon in the Southeast and the Great Plains.

Conservation: Not usually required.

NCGR: G5 - Demonstrably secure globally, though it may be quite rare in parts of its range, especially at the periphery.

Management Needs: Caterpillars are pests on tomato and other plants in the nightshade family (Solanaceae).

Comments: NULL

BAMONA Shop

Check out our Classic BAMONA Logo Shirts and cozy Native Plants Hoodies!

Please donate!

We depend on donations to keep Butterflies and Moths of North America freely available. We want to express our gratitude to all who showed their support by making a contribution this year. You can donate to support this project at any time.

Advertise with us!

Do you have a product or service that you think would interest BAMONA users? If you would like to advertise on this website, contact us by email, or use the contact form and select the "Advertising" category.

Verified Sightings

Displaying 313 - 336 of 688 verified sightings

Filter by Region

Observation date: Aug 27, 1962

Submitted by: legacy.reporter (Heitzman, J. Richard)

Region: Clay County, Missouri, United States

Verified by: legacy.verifier (Phillip Koenig; Heitzman, J.R.)

Verified date: Mar 11, 2009

Butterflies and Moths of North America

collecting and sharing data about Lepidoptera

National Moth Week is July 18-26!

Moths are amazing creatures. Take photographs and share your moth sightings with us to document the moths where you live.

Please donate!

Advertise with us!

Verified Sightings

Advertisement

Five-spotted hawkmoth
Manduca quinquemaculata (Haworth, 1803)