There’s a lot of weird bugs in the world, but to me the Hummingbird Clearwing Moth stands out as one of the weirdest.
The butterfly bushes have been a little scraggly this year, up to the last week or so when they finally got the idea. We have to cut them back pretty severely each year to keep them from taking over the manor grounds.
That's a great picture FARfetched. I'm continually amazed by all the talented people with cameras I see.
ReplyDeleteBTW at my place if I had butterfly bushes, they would have already taken over. :)
Wow! That's some moth ... very substantial! Looks sorta like a shrimp on the tail end there ... lol ... Is that the probiscus sucking nectar!? That's crazy FAR!
ReplyDeleteInteresting moth you have there, FAR ... have to confess I've never seen nor heard of a clear wing one. We usually have droves of the Sphinx moths coming by at night, often fooling people into thinking they're hummingbirds. Do you happen to know what the proper latinate name is of this species? I'd like to see if they even exist in our part of the country.
ReplyDeleteYou reminded me that I need to go back into my archives from the past couple of years and do a post of our sphinx moths on my blog ... so stop by sometime and see if I've actually found them and put them up. Or I'll just stop by here and leave you tip...
Great pic and lovely BBush... looks like the one we have in the far back corner of our garden... "Black Knight."
Hi guys, thanks for the comments...
ReplyDeleteFM, I'll be glad to bring you some rootings, or have you come here and get some. ;-)
Olivia, yes he's feeding! These moths are unique in a lot of ways, and hovering over the flower is one of them.
IVG, the Latin name for this bugglie is hemaris thysbe (the link goes to a page with more info and some pix). From the description, they range over the eastern US and most of Canada, so I would expect them to be in Iowa. Look for them in the early evening; they're more daytime than most moths but I get all sorts of funky moths around here at all hours. They come in all sorts of color variations; don't expect yours to be wearing Georgia Tech colors! :-D
When I first saw this thing, we had just had a tropical system move through so I thought maybe a Cuban bee hummingbird had gotten carried up here. I got this picture the second time I saw it, posted it to Techcomm, and one of the other guys on the list identified it.