Meet the Sphinx Moth or if you prefer the Hawk Moth or as I call it the “Hummingbird Moth”, wrong or not that is just what I call it. This is just one of 1,450 species and this is the species that tend to visit our garden as well as at times comes inside the house to get put back outside. The moth above is in flight, hovering as hummingbirds do! Why I call them the “hummingbird moth”, for it is easy for me to remember.
I have witnessed a hummingbird attacking one of these , due to thinking it was another hummingbird perhaps?? Hummers are very territorial as many of us bird watchers can testify to!
If you notice the hummingbird moths or um White-lined Sphinx like the Zinnia Flowers! I notice if you move slow as of no threat these moths do allow you pretty close to them. This of course comes in handy if you say, want photographs of them?
Hovering as they do, I get quite a few shots of them doing just that! They are quite big for a moth! 2″ to 3″ – 3″ to 4″. For instance the Rufous hummers (Hummingbird), are 3″-4″ inches. So you can imagine why the hummingbird attacked the moth outside that I watched here.
Guy my other half has been warned about the caterpillar. Guy was told to kill them on site if he wants any tomatoes. I personally can not see doing this at this point. We just do not have reason to. However, if say the local farmers were having a infestation and asked folks to help them…. who knows? To my understanding and observations we do not have tomato farms here. We do have the apple trees, however we have the woodpeckers, and other birds who keep the insects in check. See a post I did about a woodpecker catching his dinner I photographed on one of my walks here. The woodpeckers do help out with the bugs !
I have put in four o-clocks in 2014 , I read that this is one of the plants they like to feed on? I had not seen this activity, though you never know what the future may hold? I believe without going into my other hard drive of getting this moth feeding on the Ozark teardrop. Which of course is just another of the primrose species and one that I had to control in 2014 due to establishing itself in another part of the garden and getting over 6′ tall, a good 3′ in circumference with many blossoms and seeds! Seeds of course had to be destroyed before they were mature. Some of my flowers I do this with daily, or every other day only because they will try and take over the world.
I just find the moth itself does more good here pollinating then the caterpillars eat, though I feel this way about many of the butterflies I have established here as well. Ying Yang, everything has to eat.
I see as I look at the computer clock I have another 45 minutes before the walking dead is on, so perhaps I will find something else to write about? I found myself tossing one blog I wrote that just was not good enough in my eyes to share with you all.
Being asked if I am still taking photographs earlier today….. Am I still breathing? HAHA! Rest assured I am still doing what I do! Though the outside gardens are done for the winter.
Thank you for coming by, checking out my little write up here and of course my photography! More photographs of these moths and I do have more photographs to add to the websites.
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