This was counter to the conventional wisdom which was that the lift was provided 50:50 by the up and down strokes as with hawk moths.
virginica is adapted primarily to nocturnal pollination by medium sized moths and larger sphinx moths.
Sphingid moths are attracted by the scent of this orchid, and tend to hover in front of the flowers, resting their forelegs on the lip.
Benjamin Preston Clark (8 October 1860 West Roxbury- 11 January 1939, Philadelphia) was an American entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera, especially Sphingidae.
Amphonyx duponchel (Duponchel's Sphinx), a moth of the Sphingidae family, named after Philogène Auguste Joseph Duponchel
Research is in progress on the ecological and evolutionary relationships between some members of the genus and specialist long-tongued pollinators, particularly night flying hawk moths (Family Sphingidae) and flies in the families Nemestrinidae, Tabanidae, and Bombyliidae.