For Kildale

[DandyLioness]

KILDALE!!!

Are sphinx and hummingbird moths one in the same?

One of my cats brought one into the house today, and it was HUGE! I finally managed to rescue it and set it atop a tall plant, so it wouldn't be bothered.

[Dave McCormick]

Sorroy to reply first, but I would say sphinx and hawk moths are the same species. Sphinx moths are so called because of the way their caterpillars rest, with head up and curled over. Hawk moths are so called cause they can fly fast, like hawks.

[DandyLioness]

No need to appologize, Dave. Thanks for the info. I wish I could have gotten a picture of it. :unsure:

[MrSeedy]

We have another much smaller moth I sometimes see here , which hovers during daytime hours it seems to feed, and I'd thought that one, though not a Sphinx was also called a hulmmingbird moth. Can't recall the exact color , but it has distinctive tufts of fluff or fur like structures on it's abdomen, which is very distinctive. Of course that daytime thing does suggest it's a butterfly and not a moth of course, so I could be wrong? I've not seen one yet this summer to even get a photo though, providing I'd even have a camera handy to take a photo. Most likely it would be long gone by the time I'd return with my camera , as usually seems the case when I see something I wan't to take a photo of! i guess the most common way to determine weather an insect is moth or butterfly is by looking at the distinctive feathery antennae that moths have , versus the knobbed types for true butterflies perhaps? Can't recall that however, for the one I have in mind? Here's a borrowed photo of that other "hummingbird" moth, though of course some folks insist that's the wrong name for it, but after all , what's sure about those common names is that there're not cast in stone!

[DandyLioness]

That looks like the one, MrSeedy!

[Ginny42]

That's the kind we have all over here too!:grin: