The Moth and the Butterfly

Okay, one more butterfly post.

This is a gorgeous specimen of a Vine Sphinx moth (Eumorpha vitis).  It is about 3 1/2 inches in diameter.  These moths love a variety of flowers, including those of the trumpet vines that have slowly taken over our yard.  This Sphinx had recently emerged from pupating in an underground burrow below a stand of trumpet vine and was still getting its sea legs when I photographed him (after posing him on a pomegranate bush).  I put him back in a secluded spot under heavy foliage so he could finish adjusting to the outside world, and he eventually flew off to find his own spot where he could wait for evening and a new life as a fully-mature moth.

Vine Sphinx moth

Vine Sphinx moth (a little closer up)

Here is a female Checkered White (Pontia protodice), also known as the Common White and the Southern Cabbage Moth.  She is a butterfly, however, and not a moth.  Several species of Whites are called Cabbage Moths, which is made even more confusing by the fact that there is also a true moth called the Cabbage Moth.  The upper side of the female checkered white has this lovely light brown pattern, though the underwing is mostly white with just a little bit of light brown marking.

female Checkered White

female Checkered White