Michael,
After getting out of the hospital (again) today my docs/nurses said to go easy on the exercise. So I was on a post dinner amble around the house long after sunset. I saw something moving out of the corner of my eye. There were dozens of these little unidentified flitting critters sucking on the nectar of our Jupiter’s Beard flowers. It was too dark to see what they were. I called out to Beth inside, “Come out and see these amazing little things! And bring my camera!”
I could get quite close to them without alarming them, and got 8 good photos. They appear to be 1 1/2 to 2 inches long, not including the bill, which is about 1 1/2 in long. Each time the camera flashed the UFC jumped up about 3 inches in the duration of the flash. I don’t know what that translates to in terms of speed, but it’s *fast*! Their colors are grey and pink, like nothing I’ve ever seen. Their bill/proboscis is long and bent.
Does anyone know what these are? Genus/Order?
–rakkity
At first I assumed a nearby nuke plant ala just about any sci-fi movie from the 50’s, then I thought maybe hummingbirds and moths mating, then I figured why not try images.google.com – search term = hummingbird moths -and lo and behold.
Excellent captures, Rakk! And when following Michael’s flickr link, don’t miss the “for more info” link, where you can get detailed info about the “white-lined sphinx hummingbird moth” (though you have to go digging a bit more to find some Latin: http://zipcodezoo.com/Animals/H/Hyles_lineata.asp).
Like Michael, I went googling myself and found that they are indeed sphinx moths. The other links showing the development of the winged form from the cocoon is really interesting. Next spring I’ll look for the caterpillars.
Oh–one other thing–these sphinx moths have such long proboscises, you’d think they might be specialized to sucking nectar from flowers with deep, long channels. (Like the flowers Darwin found, from which he predicted there must be a critter with a long enough proboscis to probe down to the bottom. The appropriate moth was discovered only just last year.)
BirdBrain tells me she has those moths in her garden and sent this link. It’s pretty funny.
Alright…
so i dont care what they are
all i have to say is no fucking thank you.
Though it is not brown, Travis might concur.
The movie with commentary is hilarious. Very much like between me & Mrs Rakkity last night!
Strangely, my love of birds does not make the leap to moths. I’m with Matt. These things creep me out.
I saw a white-lines sphinx moth this past wenkeed in Show Low. At least, I think it was that. It has very distinctive black and white lined markings. It was so different looking that I called my husband over to look at it. Very cool!