Rustic Sphinx Lands on My Doorstep

I took a break from working today to sit on my porch (near the Fort Circle Parks and Fort Totten Metro) and see if I could net and identify an insect that would be new to me. I thought I had seen some Bee Flies through the window earlier.

After waiting for a few minutes, I saw what I thought was a Ruby Throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris), which while quite possible at this time of year in D.C. would be a bit unusual in my neighborhood given the absence of any nearby feeding opportunities.

It flew under the roof of my porch, seemed to rear back for a moment mid-air, and then crashed into the glass of my storm door. Ouch. I thought of calling a bird rehabber, but it turned out to be a moth!

Specifically, a Rustic Sphinx moth (Manduca rustica), to judge by the similarity to this Maryland Biodiversity Project record of Rustic Sphinx in nearby Prince George’s County, Maryland. This Hardford County record, of an individual with less brown and more starkly black and white coloration, bears an even stronger resemblance.

It was sitting quite still for the five minutes or so I inspected and photographed it.

I checked on it an hour or so later and it still hadn’t moved. But by nightfall, it was gone. I’d like to think it wasn’t too badly harmed by the crash and was able to fly away, but it seems just as likely that it was been eaten by one of the Northern Mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos) that nests near my porch.