Animal profile

Morgan's Sphinx Moth

Xanthopan praedicta

InsectaForest and woodland across Madagascar

Field profile

A large hawkmoth with an exceptionally long proboscis, the pollinator of the Madagascan star orchid. Its existence was predicted from the orchid's flower structure decades before any specimen was found, and its feeding behaviour was filmed more than a century later.

Published field notes

2025-07-26

Morgan's Sphinx Moth

Darwin predicted this moth from an orchid

Shown a Madagascan orchid with a nectar tube nearly 30 centimetres long, Darwin argued in 1862 that a moth with a matching proboscis must exist. One was described in 1903, and it was filmed feeding at the orchid only in 1992.

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