Hummingbird Clearwing

These are one of my favorite moths, the Hummingbird Clearwing:

  • They're big enough to see without (much) difficulty.
  • They're colorful enough to take a good picture.
  • They can be found in places I go to find butterflies and other pollinators; I don't need to go someplace I wouldn't be anyway.
  • If I mistake something else for the Hummingbird Clearwing, that something else is also pretty cool (usually an actual Ruby-throated Hummingbird or their Snowberry Clearwing moth cousins).
Unfortunately this is the only picture I've gotten of them this season. I was scouting around Oak Meadow to see what was around a couple days before the annual Duke Farms Butterfly Count when I saw this one hovering around the Wild Bergamot.

It's claimed that these moths are migratory but I haven't found anything on where they spend the winter. Their range goes pretty far into Canada, so it wouldn't surprise me if they overwinter here in NJ. If they do, their strategy is to be ready to pupate before the cold weather hits, burrow into the ground, form a pupa underground, and spend the winter in this state. When things warm up in spring, they can emerge as moths. When raised in captivity, they're placed in a refrigerator to simulate winter; it does appear they expect to deal with some level of cold.
July 27, 2022 at Duke Farms
Photo 222066121, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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