northeast-flora-and-fauna

Here are a couple more of those Hummingbird Clearwing Moths I've shown you before .  Though hummingbirds are small relative to most birds, these moths are small relative to hummingbirds; they're only around half the size of the birds. Similar to hummingbirds, they rarely land on a flower. Instead they'll drink nectar while hovering next to the flower. (I'm not sure what they do on windy days.) Both these moths have the burgundy coloring characteristic of the species, though the first one looks mostly yellow in the front half of the body. That's a little atypical; the olive coloring in the 2nd photo is more common in this species. July 22, 2021 at Fairview Farms July 23, 2021 at the Plainsboro Preserve Photo 148591755, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's a Hummingbird Clearwing Moth drinking from a Wild Bergamot (just in case you didn't believe the Silver-spotted Skipper or the Spicebush Swallowtail when they showed how delicious the flower's nectar is). While it's hard to get familiar with a lot of moths because many are noctural, or very small, or gray/brown without obvious patterns. These moths offer none of those obstacles, flying around in broad daylight, being larger than many insects, and having a fairly distinctive appearance. I've talked about these moths before , though I like the way you can see the proboscis in this picture. That's the appendage going from the front of the head down into the flower, and it's the means by which moths, butterflies, and some other insects can drink nectar from flowers. Note this allows them to drink from some narrow tubular flowers that might be inaccessible to them otherwise. July 18, 2021 at Scherman Hoffman Wildlife Sanctuary

Here's a Hummingbird Clearwing Moth . They are sphinx moths aka hawkmoths , and are considered to mimic both hummingbirds and bees. I can easily understand a moth (which has relatively little defensive options) mimicking a bee since bees can sting. I can only assume that their resemblance to hummingbirds is due to: Very similar feeding habits, since both hover in flight while drinking nectar from flowers. Hummingbirds are occasionally preyed upon by robberflies and mantises, though they're not the primary prey of such predators. Hummingbird Clearwing Moths might get a free pass from predators that consider them to be weird food that tastes funny, like hummingbirds. They have a fairly close relative (same genus) that looks similar, the Snowberry Clearwing Moth . They'd be black where the Hummingbird Clearwing has a chestnut-red color. Though the Snowberry Clearwing isn't truly rare, the Hummingbird Clearwing is clearly more common in my area. August 15, 2020 at Negri Nep...