Paonias excaecata
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
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 |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Blinded Sphinx sighting in Portland on a given day, based on 22 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 209th most-seen of the 507 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June and July
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Blinded Sphinx in Portland on a given day, against under 5% in August to May, the lowest months. Those are among Portland's driest months, with about 35 mm of rain a month against 250 mm in December.
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.
4th of 12
Of the 12 cities where we can rate Blinded Sphinx sightings, Portland ranks 4th at under 5%. The best odds are in Denver (United States, about 10%), 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 Portland (family Sphingidae, Sphinx Moths) are White-Lined Sphinx (about 10%) and One-Eyed 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 Portland (22 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.
