Ottawa (Dunrobin), ON Canada

5 July 2003   11:18PM EST  (top)
4 July 2004   1:45AM EST  (bottom)

Paonias myops, also called the Small-Eyed Sphinx, is one of two species of Paonias recorded from the Ottawa area (J.D. Lafontaine, pers. comm., 2001).

Paonias myops is usually described as having dark brown forewings, but in my experience of seeing this species in artificial light at night, the forewings of fresh specimens are overlain with a deep purple-blue-gray sheen as in the photos above, and only worn specimens appear predominantly dark brown. The basal area is slightly lighter in color, with antemedial bands that loop outward around a darker brown patch, and outwardly extend into the median in a sharp point. A series of parallel scalloped bands crosses the wing in the antemedial area. Patches of yellow are found at the apex and anal angle, the apical patch defined outwardly by a short zigzag line. The hindwing is yellow, bordered in brown along the outer margin. Near the inner margin, the hindwing is marked with an "eye" of blue surrounded by black. There are also brown and purplish stripes extending partway down the wing from the midpoint of the costa of the hindwing, which are often partly visible when the hindwings project beyond the forewings in the resting position. Covell (1984) indicates a wingspan of 4.5 to 7.5 cm for this species.

According to Handfield (1999), the larva of Paonias myops has been reported to feed on pincherry, chokecherry, black cherry, serviceberry or shadbush, grape, hawthorn, hazel and several other species of deciduous trees and shrubs. He gives an adult flight season for my general area from the beginning of June nearly to mid-August.

My records to date for Paonias myops (each date representing "the night of") are in the table below: