In late afternoon, under a full sun, behind a spike of purple salvia, a blur of wings attracts my eye. A creature about the size of an average butterfly flies near the inflorescence, extending its proboscis consecutively into each small, individual flower to sip nectar, but it is not a butterfly. The rapidly vibrating wings, showing only a hint of red-brown, suggest a species of bee, but the local bees are not so large. The hovering behavior is reminiscent of a hummingbird, but this is an insect and not a bird.
As the creature moves around the flower stalk, its shape and color become more distinct. It possesses the dark feathery antennae of a moth and a stout body with a red-brown abdomen, bearing two yellow stripes running crosswise, and a tuft at the end. It is a Nessus Sphinx (Amphion floridensis) moth; similar and related to several species of hummingbird moth.
The commonly referred to "hawk," "sphinx," or "hummingbird" moths belong to the family Sphingidae. Though most are active at dusk, I have usually encountered this (2006, 2009) and two additional species in the morning. Those previously observed species are the Hummingbird Clearwing (Hemaris thysbe) (2006, 2008) and the Snowberry Clearwing (Hemaris diffinis) (2008), both of which lack scales on large portions of their wings, resulting in transparent, or clear, wings.
Posted at: 06:17 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
a first ever for me.