It is found in western North America from California to Alberta.

[2] The populations of Smerinthus cerisyi were divided into two species by Pohl, Anweiler, Schmidt and Kondla in 2010.

The southern prairie-mountain (Crowsnest Pass southward) populations are now known as S. ophthalmica (type locality: San Francisco, California) and the boreal-mountain populations as S. cerisyi (type locality: North America, limited to New York State).

These taxonomic changes pertaining to North American taxa were countered by Tuttle in 2007.

S. ophthalmica however, is distinguished by a pale brown phenotype prevalent in prairie populations, a less scalloped margin on the forewing, less scalloped and smoother postmedian lines on the forewing, a sharper angle of the antemedian line, and narrower serrations of the male antennae, as well as surprisingly large mitochondrial DNA divergence.