The American Hornet Moth, Poplar Clearwing Borer or Cottonwood Crown Borer (Sesia tibialis) is a moth

Moth

A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...

 of the Sesiidae

Sesiidae

The Sesiidae or clearwing moths are family of the Lepidoptera in which the wings partially have hardly any of the normal lepidopteran scales, leaving them transparent. The bodies are generally striped with yellow, red or white, sometimes very brightly, and they have simple antennae...

 family. It is known from North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

, including British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

, Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

, Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

, Montana

Montana

Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...

, Washington, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 and Arizona

Arizona

Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

.
Adults resemble hornets with black and yellow-striped bodies and transparent wings.

The larvae feed on common lilac, green ash, poplar, aspen, cottonwood and trembling aspen. It is a pest of poplar and willow and commonly feeds in hybrid poplar stool beds. They live in tunnels in the cambial area (bark-wood interface) of both the lower stem and roots of their host plant. The species requires two years to complete its life cycle, overwintering as a larvae twice. Pupation occurs in silk-lined, wood chip pupal chambers in the soil if larvae have fed in host tree roots. They pupate just below the bark surface if they have fed in the stem. Depending on their location, pupae move to the surface of either soil or bark before emerging as adult moths in late June or early July.