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Striped Morning Sphinx
This is probably the commonest of all the North American Sphingidae. The larva feeds upon Portulaca. There is considerable diversity in the maculation of the larvae. The two figures here given represent the two most usual forms of the caterpillar. The insect ranges over the southern portions of British America to the Gulf of Mexico and southward to the Antilles and Central America. I have seen hundreds of the moths swarming about the electric lights in the streets of Denver, Cheyenne, and Colorado Springs. The moth flies constantly in bright sunshine on the Laramie Plains of Wyoming in the month of August, frequenting the blossoms of thistles. I have seen it busily engaged in extracting the sweets from dew-spangled beds of Soapwort (Saponaria), in the valleys of Virginia long after the sun had risen in the morning.