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A little visitor in the garden
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Posted by
perennialfan273 zone 5 (
My Page) on
Sat, Sep 14, 13 at 19:10
| I just love these little critters! I've seen almost none of them this year so this was a real treat for me. In case you've never seen them before, these are called "hummingbird moths". There are many different species. Not sure what kind this is. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: A little visitor in the garden
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RE: A little visitor in the garden
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| Have seen two sizes, one about an inch or so long, and one about half as big as a hummingbird. Certainly two distinct species. My camera certainly does not capture any thing but blurry wings. |
RE: A little visitor in the garden
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| We have similar moths here in New Mexico. I've always heard them referred to as hawk moths. They feed from the same flowers as the hummingbirds and are similar in size, but they don't fly the same way. We had a group of them all over the salvia greggii one day, and realized they weren't all hummers. Great pictures! I hadn't realized how beautifully marked they are. Cheryl |
RE: A little visitor in the garden
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| I get them in my gardens too. They love the phlox. We usually see them in the early evening. Kat |
RE: A little visitor in the garden
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| I saw one for the first time yesterday on the phlox and couldn't believe my eyes. I thought it was a deformed humming bird! |
RE: A little visitor in the garden
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| i have them come at night to my moon flowers. they are also known as spinx or hawk moths |
RE: A little visitor in the garden
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- Posted by mxk3 z5b/6 MI (My Page) on
Sun, Sep 15, 13 at 10:25
| I have seen them before but not many. Maybe they're out there when I'm not around. |
RE: A little visitor in the garden
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| Oooohhhhhh....I don't consider any summer complete until I see one of those guys, and I finally saw one last week! They are hands down, my favorite little discovery in the garden. When I could grow garden phlox at our last house, they just covered the Davids every year. But I can't seem to grow phlox in Kansas. I saw one feasting on some late-blooming/repeat blooming butterfly weed last week. |
RE: A little visitor in the garden
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| Oooohhhhhh....I don't consider any summer complete until I see one of those guys, and I finally saw one last week! They are hands down, my favorite little discovery in the garden. When I could grow garden phlox at our last house, they just covered the Davids every year. But I can't seem to grow phlox in Kansas. I saw one feasting on some late-blooming/repeat blooming butterfly weed last week. |
RE: A little visitor in the garden
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| Gallium Sphinx (Hyles gallii) moth |
RE: A little visitor in the garden
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| The first time I saw one of these a couple years ago, I was amazed! It loved the phlox in the hummingbird garden. The hummer was not so happy with it though and chased it around. They do look similar, but have different flight patterns. Btw, one of their host plants is Fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) which is a gorgeous plant and easy to start from seed. I have some, but unfortunately have yet to see it bloom because some dumb deer LOVES it and keeps munching down the plants every year. I should move them, away from the deer traffic! |
RE: A little visitor in the garden
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| What a great pic! I've had a couple in my gardens the last couple of years. I had to ask my grandmother what they were! |
RE: A little visitor in the garden
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| Nice capture! Those speedsters are not the easiest to keep in a viewfinder. Unfortunately, I don't get to see them very often. |
RE: A little visitor in the garden
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| The one in your picture is called White Lined Sphinx moth, another common one is the Clearwing Spinx moth, both commonly called hummingbird moths. Here's a picture of the cat of the WLS moth, feeding on gaura lindheimeri: 
And a picture of a CW feeding on phlox Delta Snow. They love phlox and verbena: 
Karen |
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