This is a moth?

By your comments as you thought it was a hummingbird I suspect it its one of the family of these

Hummingbird moths their are several different types

This is a Sphinx moth. Ya know those really big, green caterpillars that get on your tomato plants? this is what they eventually become. Kinda neat, huh!

It is a Five Spotted Hawkmoth if it's kin to the Tomato Hornworm

Layman names are many and fairly non-descriptive.

I have a book here, Essex, Insects of Western North America. It contains every possible insect, their family name, scientific drawings of all their characteristic parts, and keys - for keying out any type. Plus it contains nomenclature, habitat, photographs, the works!

And while it was written in the 40's, I've never found a book of its equal. If I run across some crawly thing that I've never seen before, Essex will have covered it!

Hummingbird hawk moth most likely...

Huge long proboscis, day flying, hovers as it drinks the nectar out of a flower and then darts away to the next one. We are seeing them in the UK if it's a hot summer. People mistake them for humming birds...

Nice pic here

This pic shows it really looking like a hummingbird

Del

seek

Hello JE,

After enlarging your picture, you seem to have found a Hawk-moth as stated but I was not familiar with it and after a little reading it seems they are not native to the Americas but Eurasia. So that would be different.

I don't think our humming birds would put up with them here. They can be very territorial, a single feeder just causes fights. Surprisingly the little one are the worst for this.

Brad

That's because the little ones are the males!

Yes but the little males last year were more aggressive than the bigger males by far. The white ones had the most colorful throat markings but the little solid black males harassed even the wasps, and any birds they didn't like around. The bigger emerald greens seem to be the calmest.

The blacks when you could catch the light off them just right had a blue iridescence that was intense. So far they are the only ones I have seen this year but I haven't been working around the house much.

Brad

Yep. As a species, they're fairly territorial! So are mockingbirds. I've found one that mimics both a blue jay and a peregrine falcon!!!

Eh? Not so according to this report http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato_hornworm

And after a little more reading the hummingbird hawk moth of Eurasia is called the bee moth in the Americas. No hummingbird hawk moths here. Taxonomy at its finest.

Brad

A boomerang post it is

Appears to be a hummingbird moth. They are fairly common here in the Cleveland Area.

While living in British Columbia in 2004 I was walking to work and came across the biggest green caterpillar I had ever seen slowly making its way down the sidewalk. I found a stick and had it climb on board. There was a pet store next door to where I worked and so I went over and bought a small plastic insect terrarium. By the next day it had cacooned. A number of weeks later this is what emerged.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Utp7blGB9B8

Brilliant!

Last year we found 2 pairs of Lime Hawk Moths mating in the garden one evening...
The next morning one pair was still at it .

Saw a Privet Hawk moth one evening warming up it's muscles pre-flight, pretty impressive.

Del

Very nice photography! My daughter sent me a picture of a Luna Moth that she briefly caught (in ME) and then let go. It was quite Large!