The Hummingbird Moth and the Luna Moth
Haven't seen any moth posts yet, and these are two of my favorites for their WTF-ness.
First: The Hummingbird Moth -- two great tastes that taste great together.
The first time I ever saw these little guys was when I was growing up in Alaska. On relatively warmer summer evenings, these moths would show up to drink from my mom's flowers around twilight. At first we were confused and could get only fleeting glimpses of them -- they moved and drank like hummingbirds, but they had solid, fuzzy, cylindrical moth bodies. After a while we learned that they are indeed a moth -- The Hummingbird Hawk-Moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) -- and are actually fairly widely-distributed throughout the world. They do indeed flit around like hummingbirds and drink from flowers with a long proboscis. Weirdly, they've also demonstrated an ability to learn colors.
A couple of pages with some big, beautiful pictures of the moths at various life stages:
http://www.leps.it/indexjs.htm?SpeciesPages/MacroStellat.htm
http://tpittaway.tripod.com/sphinx/m_ste.htm
Second: The Luna Moth (Actias luna)
Primarily a North American moth, the Luna Moth can look a lot like a leaf from far away if you've never seen one before. It's quite jarring when you get close to one and see its big fuzzy body and vivid antennae. If you've grown up in mainly cold climates and are used to small brown moths, seeing one of these is a pleasant surprise. They only live a week as adults, so apparently it's rare to see them, but in spite of that are still considered 'common'. I think they're gorgeous, and have luckily seen a lot in real life; note the green of their wings is a lot deeper and more vivid in person -- it seems like most pictures of them tend to wash them out.
Links with more pics:
http://www3.islandtelecom.com/~oehlkew/zlunmoth.htm
http://wormspit.com/Luna.htm
First: The Hummingbird Moth -- two great tastes that taste great together.
The first time I ever saw these little guys was when I was growing up in Alaska. On relatively warmer summer evenings, these moths would show up to drink from my mom's flowers around twilight. At first we were confused and could get only fleeting glimpses of them -- they moved and drank like hummingbirds, but they had solid, fuzzy, cylindrical moth bodies. After a while we learned that they are indeed a moth -- The Hummingbird Hawk-Moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) -- and are actually fairly widely-distributed throughout the world. They do indeed flit around like hummingbirds and drink from flowers with a long proboscis. Weirdly, they've also demonstrated an ability to learn colors.
A couple of pages with some big, beautiful pictures of the moths at various life stages:
http://www.leps.it/indexjs.htm?SpeciesPages/MacroStellat.htm
http://tpittaway.tripod.com/sphinx/m_ste.htm
Second: The Luna Moth (Actias luna)
Primarily a North American moth, the Luna Moth can look a lot like a leaf from far away if you've never seen one before. It's quite jarring when you get close to one and see its big fuzzy body and vivid antennae. If you've grown up in mainly cold climates and are used to small brown moths, seeing one of these is a pleasant surprise. They only live a week as adults, so apparently it's rare to see them, but in spite of that are still considered 'common'. I think they're gorgeous, and have luckily seen a lot in real life; note the green of their wings is a lot deeper and more vivid in person -- it seems like most pictures of them tend to wash them out.
Links with more pics:
http://www3.islandtelecom.com/~oehlkew/zlunmoth.htm
http://wormspit.com/Luna.htm