title: Sphinx kalmiae
text: # Sphinx kalmiae
  
  Sphinx kalmiae, the laurel sphinx, is a moth of the family Sphingidae.
  
  ## Distribution
  
  It is found in the temperate parts of the United States and southern Canada east of the Great Plains, in the north it occurs west of the Rocky Mountains.
  
  ## Description
  
  The wingspan is 75–103 mm.
  
  * Male dorsal
  * Male ventral
  * Female dorsal
  * Female ventral
  
  ## Biology
  
  In Canada, there is one generation per year with adults on wing in June and July. More to the south, there are two generations per year with adults on wing from late May to June and again from July to August. There may be as many as six generations in Louisiana.
  
  The larvae feed on Chionanthus, Kalmia, Syringa and Fraxinus species. They are blue-green or yellow-green with seven diagonal lines that are white edged with black above and usually yellow below.
  
  ## Taxonomy
  
  English entomologist James Edward Smith named this moth after Kalmia, the plant on which its caterpillar was first observed.
  
  