Sphinx kalmiae (Taxonomy)
Recognisable by the yellow-brown forewing upperside with restricted, but prominent pattern elements including: an oblique, dark band running from the hind margin near the base to vein CuA2; a narrow, well-marked whitish submarginal band, partially interrupted by lanceolate lines on the veins; prominent apical line, with a more diffuse dark streak between it and the costal margin. Antenna slender in both sexed, not club-shaped; ciliae of female long, the basal and subdorsal ones of each segment almost forming a comb. Palpus prominent.Foreleg with spines slender, not elongate; foretarsus with 1st segment more than 1.5x as long as segments 2-5, as long as that of midtarsus, 1.3x as long as that of hindtarsus.Tibial spurs quite long; the long apical one of the hindtibia more than half the length of the 1st hindtarsal segment.Midtarsus with comb with some quite long bristles.Paronychium with long, pointed lobe. Uncus elongate, remaining narrow to apex, slightly curved, apex obtuse, somewhat flattened dorsally.Gnathos produced into a short, very broad, irregularly rounded, almost vertical mesial lobe that is slightly sinuate in the middle.Valve with dorsal margin almost straight, little narrowed distad, apex regularly rounded; subdorsal fold broad above the harpe, not extending beyond basal third of valve, with long bristles.Harpe with 3 processes: a finger-like ventral one a little curved apically; and 2 dorso-distal ones, separated by a rounded sinus, both pointed, tooth-like, the upper denticulated.Aedeagus with a very long, slender apical process, concave on its inner side, and with a minute tooth on the outer side just before its rounded apex, similar to Sphinx lugens. Ostial plate quite similar to that of Sphinx leucophaeata; ostium located in middle of plate, which is produced into a triangle proximally, longitudinally folded and grooved mesially; posterior to the ostium is an elongate, slightly ovate, smooth tubercule.