Hummingbird Moth
by Robert Bales
Title
Hummingbird Moth
Artist
Robert Bales
Medium
Photograph - Photo
Description
White-Lined Sphinx Moths are big, brown and abundant across the continent. They can resemble streamlined jets with their solid wings and sleek lines.
The sphinx moth (family Sphingidae) is also called the hawk moth and the hummingbird moth because of its hovering, swift flight patterns. These stout-bodied moths have long, narrow forewings and shorter hindwings, with wingspans ranging from 2 to 8 inches. Many species pollinate flowers such as orchids, petunias and evening primroses while sucking their nectar with a proboscis (feeding tube) that exceeds 10 inches in some species.
White-lined sphinx moths are among the largest flying insects of the deserts, with adult wingspans exceeding 5 inches. Larvae can be just as long, with most having a prominent horn at the rear of their fleshy body. When alarmed, these larvae rear up their heads in a threatening sphinx-like posture and may emit a thick, green substance from their mouths.
Sphinx moth larvae change underground into adult moths, who then dig their way to the surface. Mating occurs shortly thereafter, with females laying as many as 1,000 eggs on the underside of food plants. Eggs hatch within a few days. In the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts, there may be two broods, one in the spring and another in summer. In the colder Great Basin desert, only one brood is produced. Males and females die after they have completed their roles in the reproductive process.
Sphinx moths emerge at dusk from their hiding places and begin feeding on the nectar of flowers. Their size, combined with their rapid wing beats, allows them to hover and feed in the manner of hummingbirds, for which they are sometimes mistaken.
This manner of flight requires a great deal of energy and creates a good deal of heat in the moth's body. For these reasons, moths feed exclusively on nectar and seek flowers which produce large amounts of this water source which also contain high amounts of sugar. Such is the case with the evening primrose (Onagraceae) family, and particularly the dune evening primrose, which the white-lined sphinx moth is responsible for pollinating.
Uploaded
March 10th, 2015
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Comments (15)
Christopher James
One of your peers nominated this image in the 1000 Views on One Image Group's Special Features Nominations For Promotion #27 . Please help your fellow artists by visiting and passing on the love to another artist in the the 1000 Views on One Image Group....L/F/Tw
Shoal Hollingsworth
This is amazing, I nominated this for a Special Feature in the 1000 Views group. L/F
Christopher James
Congratulation.....your wonderful work has been featured in the 1000 Views on 1 Image Group ..... Feel free to place your featured image in the Features Archive and any Genre specific Archive l/f/p
Robert Bales replied:
Thanks, Christopher for the feature, comment, invite, congratulations, and promotion!