Photo of the hummingbird hawkmoth

By Mark Frauenfelder at 11:04 pm Friday, Aug 25

This beautiful photo of a Hummingbird Hawkmoth was taken by Jane Cockman and posted to her Flickr stream. I'd never heard of a Hummingbird Hawkmoth before, but I like the name. It's as if the first person to see one didn't quite know what they were looking at, so they just named it after three flying animals. (Personally, I would have called it the Hummingbird Batmoth, just to throw a mammal into the mix.)

Hummingbirds are native to the Americas only, but the Hummingbird Hawkmoth does a decent job of mimicking a true hummingbird, much to the delight of easily fooled Europeans. Link (Via Neatorama)

Reader comments: Jan says:

I saw these buggers in France a few years ago, where I went to attend a friend's wedding in the country side. My wife and I were awestruck and more than a little confused at to what we were looking at, so you're absolutely right that the name is most likely given to cover all the bases (though hawk seems a bit off, but what the heck).

I saw a bunch of these fluttering around a bush, drinking the nectar, and we stood there for quite some time debating whether it was a hummingbird or not.

Joe says:

Fabulous find, the photos of the hummingbird hawkmoth. Sometime these creatures are stranger than we imagine.

I tooks some similar shots of what I thought was a hummingbird last fall. Investigation showed it, too, was a moth -- a hummingbird clearwing moth. Photos here.