Hummingbird Moth
Sunday, 18. November 2007, 16:49:50
As I sat on my deck waiting for dinner to finish grilling, watching the night sky, and admiring the flowers on the deck, a moth appeared. We had seen moths in the front yard over the last couple of days, drinking nectar from the petunias right at dusk. I knew they were hummingbird moths because of their shape and flight pattern, but gave it no thought. I'd seen them off and on through the years, but I digress.
Back to the moth on the deck. It was September 24th, the air was still warm and dinner was smelling mighty good. Then, the moth. I don't much like them, or butterflies, but I watched the little guy because they are such interesting creatures, and it was a fairly safe distance, 3 feet or so, and because, unlike other moths, these guys fly in a fairly straight line. No zig-zagging, no fluttering out of control, no getting tangled in my hair. You know where they are going, but regular moths, yikes! You just can't predict where they are going because they fly all crazy and out of control..but, again, I digress.
So, as I watched, he zoomed in and out, just like a hummingbird, going from flower to flower, and it looked so pretty. Then, it bee-lined for the light on the deck and started batting into the light, and finally knocked itself silly, dropped to the deck and sat there, stunned. It was then that I got a cup of courage, grabbed my camera, and took some pictures, and while doing so, I saw just how pretty this little guy was, with his pink and black bands on his body, and intricate black, grey and pink pattern on his wings. I knew it was a hummingbird moth, as I've already stated, but I wanted to know exactly what kind, so I took a trip through Google-land, and came up with a close, if not exact match..Pink Spotted Hawk-moth. I found a good web site, which showed a map of it's range, but Minnesota was not in it's range, and not sure that it was in fact a Pink Spotted hawk-moth, I followed the instructions on the web site for identifying the moth. Through a series of emails, I was eventually told that it was indeed a Pink Spotted hawk-moth, and that they would be adding my 'new record to their database'!
I was very please and excited.
So, here is the website. Notice the blue mark on the map of Minnesota..that's my moth.
Hawk-moth
Back to the moth on the deck. It was September 24th, the air was still warm and dinner was smelling mighty good. Then, the moth. I don't much like them, or butterflies, but I watched the little guy because they are such interesting creatures, and it was a fairly safe distance, 3 feet or so, and because, unlike other moths, these guys fly in a fairly straight line. No zig-zagging, no fluttering out of control, no getting tangled in my hair. You know where they are going, but regular moths, yikes! You just can't predict where they are going because they fly all crazy and out of control..but, again, I digress.
So, as I watched, he zoomed in and out, just like a hummingbird, going from flower to flower, and it looked so pretty. Then, it bee-lined for the light on the deck and started batting into the light, and finally knocked itself silly, dropped to the deck and sat there, stunned. It was then that I got a cup of courage, grabbed my camera, and took some pictures, and while doing so, I saw just how pretty this little guy was, with his pink and black bands on his body, and intricate black, grey and pink pattern on his wings. I knew it was a hummingbird moth, as I've already stated, but I wanted to know exactly what kind, so I took a trip through Google-land, and came up with a close, if not exact match..Pink Spotted Hawk-moth. I found a good web site, which showed a map of it's range, but Minnesota was not in it's range, and not sure that it was in fact a Pink Spotted hawk-moth, I followed the instructions on the web site for identifying the moth. Through a series of emails, I was eventually told that it was indeed a Pink Spotted hawk-moth, and that they would be adding my 'new record to their database'!
I was very please and excited.
So, here is the website. Notice the blue mark on the map of Minnesota..that's my moth.
Hawk-moth
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Lovely colours. We have a few species of hawkmoth in the UK, and their enormous caterpillers always amaze me.
By SittingFox, # 30. November 2007, 15:12:52
By lvee, # 30. November 2007, 15:24:03
You and your moth are minor celebrities.
thanks,
m
By mallorygerber, # 10. December 2007, 04:50:12
By lvee, # 10. December 2007, 12:41:16