Nature Says It All

Clearwing Hummingbird Moth

(Hemaris thysbe)

I was still using film when I saw my first Clearwing Hummingbird moth. My husband and I were at the local botanical garden and all I saw was something orange flying quickly from flower to flower. After I had the film processed, I brought the best photo into the office and a friend identified it for me. Thank you, Gwen. It's been ages since that sighting. Since then I have seen many more.

This was the best photo from that sighting. I love how its probiscus is waiting to uncurl and its wings are showing us their clearness. I submitted this photo to Wisconsin Press Women's contest and won the cover. I don't enter a lot of contests. I take photos because I love to take photos.

Although moths are generally nighttime fliers, the Clearwing Hummingbird moth is a daytime flier. They feed throughout the day. They enjoy feeding on a variety of flowering trees (e.g., cherry trees, honeysuckle and more). So, along with visiting local gardens to feed on your flowers, they have other ways of finding food.

Clearwing Hummingbirds move their wings up to 70 times in a second and can fly 12 mph. They are incredibly fast and can fly not only straight ahead but also sideways and backwards. How big are they? The research is confusing in that one article states that they are 1 to 1.5 inches long and another states they are 2 to 2.5 inches long. They live all over North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. I read that the wings are clear because the Clearwing Hummingbird moth has no scales.

Clearwing Hummingbird moths are well known in gardens. They are a lot like hummingbirds in how they hover as they feed. Once they reach the flower, they generally go into the flower to get the nectar. The photo above shows you this. In order to get photos like this, set your shutter speed to at least 400 if not 600.

The photo to the right shows how it sometimes holds onto the flower below it's getting nectar from. When I took these photos, I had no idea what I was capturing. They fly too fast for my eyes.