Paonias excaecata
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
Paonias excaecata, the blinded sphinx, is a moth of the family Sphingidae. The species was first described by James Edward Smith in 1797. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Acadia National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Cape Breton Highlands National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 3 | Great Smoky Mountains National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Shenandoah National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Denver | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Boston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Montreal | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 4 | Portland | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Edmonton | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 6 | Minneapolis [Saint Paul] | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Seattle | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Toronto | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 9 | Vancouver | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 10 | Washington | 🇺🇸 United States |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Blinded Sphinx sighting in Denver on a given day, based on 39 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 128th most-seen of the 461 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June and July
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Blinded Sphinx in Denver on a given day, against under 5% in August to May, the lowest months. Those are among Denver's wettest months, with about 50 mm of rain a month against 15 mm in January.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Blinded Sphinx sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 12 cities where we can rate Blinded Sphinx sightings, Denver has the highest daily chance: about 10%. Next come Boston (United States, under 5%) and Montreal (Canada, under 5%).
Same family: Sphingidae
The closest relatives of the Blinded Sphinx that you can see in Denver (family Sphingidae, Sphinx Moths) are White-Lined Sphinx (about 20%), Waved Sphinx (about 10%) and Achemon Sphinx (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Blinded Sphinx is recorded against all the insects logged in Denver (39 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
