Hummingbird Clearwing Moth (Hemaris thysbe) and Snowberry Clearwing Hummingbird Moth (Hemaris diffinis)

Birding Hocking Hills in Southeastern Ohio

...continued from the Great Spangled Fritillary post.

I remember the first time I ever saw a Hummingbird Clearwing Moth. It was 19 years ago in the backyard of our first house. I was standing by a patch of Black-eyed Susans when he flew up to a blossom. “Ohhhh, a hummingbird!” I thought. Until I looked closer and realized it was most definitely not a hummingbird. I remember it frightened me in a “something’s gone awry in nature” way because it looked like neither a bird nor an insect, and to top it off, it had fur (or at least is looked like it did)! I watched him for a while as he quickly went from flower to flower, until it suddenly dawned on me that he might be a bee and have a really big stinger, so I high-tailed it out of there and called mom. I can’t remember if she knew what he was or not, but I do remember a few days later I read an article in the paper about Hummingbird Moths and have thought they were really cool ever since.

I found this furry-looking Hummingbird Clearwing 

Moth (Hemaris thysbe) at the Clear Creak Metro Park 

on the Creekside Meadow trail.

Hummingbird Clearwing Moths are

often called “Common Clearwings.”

I love his little curled-up proboscis.

In my new National Audubon Society “Field Guide

to Insects and Spiders,” I read that the wings are

“plum-red” to “brownish black” at first, but the scales

drop off after the first flight leaving the clear areas.

Hummingbird Clearwing Moths can be found

around forest edges, meadows, and cultivated

flower gardens. They like nectaring on

Phlox and Bee Balm.

Check out this fellow. He’s smaller than a Common Clearwing and is called a Snowberry Clearwing Hummingbird Moth.

Nectaring on Bee Balm, I found this Snowberry 

Clearwing Hummingbird Moth (Hemaris diffinis) 

at the meadow's edge on the Prairie Warbler trail.

With such an interesting little 

masked face, he's hard to resist.