Paonias excaecata
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~50%
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 Shenandoah National Park on a given day, based on 22 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 173rd most-seen of the 723 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June to October
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Blinded Sphinx in Shenandoah National Park on a given day, against under 5% in November to May, the lowest months.
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 4
Of the 4 parks where we can rate Blinded Sphinx sightings, Shenandoah National Park ranks 4th at about 10%. The best odds are in Acadia National Park (United States, about 20%), Cape Breton Highlands National Park (Canada, about 10%) and Great Smoky Mountains National Park (United States, about 10%).
Same family: Sphingidae
The closest relatives of the Blinded Sphinx that you can see in Shenandoah National Park (family Sphingidae, Sphinx Moths) are Snowberry Clearwing (about 20%), Hummingbird Clearwing (about 10%) and Virginia Creeper 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 Shenandoah National Park (22 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
