View source for Archive:Caterpillars/Sphinx poecila

{{DISPLAYTITLE:Northern Heath Sphinx (''Sphinx poecila'')}}
<btaxobox imgnum=1178106/>
''Maier, C.T.; Lemmon, C.R.; Fengler, J.M.; Schweitzer, D.F.; Reardon, R.C.; Caterpillars on the Foliage of Conifers in the Northeastern United States. Morgantown, WV. USDA Forest Service. Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. FHTET-2004-01. March 2004. 151 p.'' 

==Description==
Greenish body with oblique lines on abdomen and with prominent middorsal horn on A8. Dark green head with adjacent greenish yellow and dark green streaks from top of lobes to stemmata. Tiny, hollow, purplish black circles concentrated on dorsum and below spiracles; white oblique lines edged above with purplish black and extending from subdorsal to subspiracular area of A1 to A7; last oblique reaches prominent, mainly dark hook on A8. Thorax and abdomen with a bluish green tint below spiracles; brownish red spiracles rimmed with light yellow. Up to 55 mm.

==Food==
Mainly woody shrubs in heathlands; occasionally eastern larch and possibly white spruce.

==Life Cycle==
One generation. Pupa overwinters in soil. Mature caterpillar present in August and September.

==Comments==
Some authorities consider this species to be the apple sphinx, ''Sphinx gordius'', but our evidence suggests that the northern heath sphinx is a distinct species.