Hawkmoths (family Sphingidae) play an important role in ecosystems as herbivores, pollinators
and prey of other animals. Adults vary in size depending upon the species, have a robust and sharp
body, prominent eyes and are generally nocturnal. They can be observed in flight at sunset
drinking nectar from flowers with their long probosces. The larvae camouflage themselves among
the foliage and it is noticeable both the large size they can reach and the conspicuous caudal horn
present in most species. The family comprises circa 1400 species and 200 genera and is distributed
worldwide. This catalog presents a list of the species included in the 30 genera present in Argentina and Uruguay.
Synonymy and geographical distribution are given for each species together with photographs of
the adults. Finally, main plant species reported either as larvae hosts or nectar sources for the
adults are mentioned. This catalogue complements and updates the chapter Lepidoptera:
Sphingidae (Moré, Kitching and Cocucci 2014) of the Biodiversity of Argentine Arthropods book
(volume 4) edited by the SEA (http://www.seargentina.com.ar/publicaciones/).