Cocytius antaeus

Cocytius antaeus, the giant sphinx, is a moth of the family Sphingidae. The species was first described by Dru Drury in 1773.

"Giant sphinx" redirects here. For the statue, see Great Sphinx of Giza.

Giant sphinx
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Sphingidae
Genus: Cocytius
Species:
C. antaeus
Binomial name
Cocytius antaeus
(Drury, 1773)[1]
Synonyms
  • Sphinx antaeus Drury, 1773
  • Sphinx annonae Shaw, 1802
  • Sphinx hydaspus Cramer, 1777
  • Sphinx iatrophae Fabricius, 1775
  • Sphinx medor Stoll, 1782
  • Amphonyx tapayusa Moore, 1883
  • Cocytius henrici Pinchon, 1969

Distribution

It is found from Brazil through Central America and into the southern parts of California,[2] Texas, and Florida in the United States.

Description

The wingspan is 126–178 mm. Very rare in North America, it was once thought to be the only insect in the continent with a long enough proboscis to pollinate the similarly rare ghost orchid.

  • Male dorsal
  • Male ventral
  • Female dorsal
  • Female ventral

Biology

The larvae feed on Annona glabra, Annona reticulata, Annona purpurea, Annona holosericea and Rollinia membranacea.[3]

gollark: However, ξ.
gollark: ς indeed.
gollark: Also the not-astral/basic multilingual plane.
gollark: It must be from certain regions of the astral planes.
gollark: Insufficiently anomalous. Is that just the same?

References
  1. "CATE Creating a Taxonomic eScience - Sphingidae". Cate-sphingidae.org. Retrieved 2011-11-01.
  2. Giant Sphinx in CA
  3. "Silkmoths". Silkmoths.bizland.com. 2011-01-31. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2011-11-01.


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