Hummingbird Moth, Common Clearwing (Hemaris thysbe)

Order: Lepidoptera (le-pid-OP-ter-a) (Info) Family: Sphingidae (SFIN-gi-dee) (Info) Genus: Hemaris Species: thysbe Profile: 14 positives 4 neutrals 1 negative Regional... This bug has been reportedly found in the following regions: , Bay Minette, Alabama Heflin, Alabama Compton, Arkansas Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas Capistrano Beach, California Eureka, California Brooksville, Florida (2 reports) Hollywood, Florida Molino, Florida Dahlonega, Georgia Rathdrum, Idaho Blue Island, Illinois Troy, Illinois Indianapolis, Indiana Jeffersonville, Indiana Noblesville, Indiana (2 reports) Cedar Rapids, Iowa Benton, Kentucky Coushatta, Louisiana Galliano, Louisiana Boonsboro, Maryland Brimfield, Massachusetts Halifax, Massachusetts Marshfield, Massachusetts Paxton, Massachusetts Swansea, Massachusetts Howell, Michigan Westland, Michigan Wayzata, Minnesota Marietta, Mississippi Conway, Missouri Hermann, Missouri Piedmont, Missouri St. Robert, Missouri Lincoln, Nebraska Hudson, New Hampshire Nashua, New Hampshire Newton, New Jersey Oak Ridge, New Jersey Lindenhurst, New York Mechanicville, New York Elizabeth City, North Carolina Hillsborough, North Carolina Oxford, North Carolina Raleigh, North Carolina Salisbury, North Carolina Bucyrus, Ohio Chesterland, Ohio Cincinnati, Ohio Columbus, Ohio Corning, Ohio Hubbard, Ohio New Madison, Ohio Waverly, Ohio Alexandria, Pennsylvania Easton, Pennsylvania Morrisville, Pennsylvania Oil City, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Crossville, Tennessee Alexandria, Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia Fredericksburg, Virginia Penhook, Virginia Virginia Beach, Virginia Spokane, Washington Menasha, Wisconsin Portage, Wisconsin West Bend, Wisconsin Member Notes: Rating Author Comment Positive melody On Jul 31, 2006, melody from Benton, KY (Zone 7a) wrote: Since the caterpillar feeds on plants in the Honeysuckle family, this pretty moth will always have food here in west KY. Nicknamed the 'Hummingbird Moth' because of the similar flight habits, it is found in forest edges, meadows and cultivated flower gardens. Found coast to coast in the north,and east of the Great Plainssouth to the Gulf. The adults like most flower nectar. There are two generations a year. Neutral lafko06 On Sep 4, 2006, lafko06 from Brimfield, MA (Zone 5a) wrote: At first I thought this was a baby hummingbird and have seen a few in my yard recently. It confused me and I googled hummingbirds and finally found out that it is actually a moth. Positive bsharf On Feb 7, 2007, bsharf from Palm Coast, FL (Zone 9a) wrote: This is a unusual moth, in that it is active during the day. Most moths rest during the day. Positive joegee On Jun 22, 2007, joegee from Bucyrus, OH (Zone 6a) wrote: I was buzzed the other evening by one of these critters. I hadn't seen one in a while. It's nice to know they're around. Negative greencat On Jul 16, 2007, greencat from Heflin, AL wrote: Somewhere I read that this is the moth (or a moth like it)that lays the egg for the tomato hornworm. Positive makshi On Aug 14, 2007, makshi from Noblesville, IN (Zone 5a) wrote: I love the way it flies around and looks so much like a hummingbird. I find it beautiful. Neutral sannajane On Mar 25, 2008, sannajane from Eureka, CA wrote: I only saw one once, and was astonished. Now I look and see (so far) I'm the only California report! Way cool moth.... Positive KBratton On Apr 21, 2008, KBratton from Hot Springs National Park, AR wrote: My husband and I noticed what we thought was a baby hummingbird on Saturday. Upon closer inspection we saw that it had antennae. This was curious, Humming Birds don’t have antennae!! We weren’t sure what we were looking at. By Sunday evening we had four of these little guys hovering all around the azalea bush in the front yard. The Hummingbirds were chasing each other around and away from the bushes and the feeder, but they didn’t pay any attention to the little visitors. We found out what they are when we got into work this morning. I’m looking forward to watching them some more tonight and hopefully to get a few pictures of them. Positive GardeniaDebby On Apr 26, 2008, GardeniaDebby from Capistrano Beach, CA wrote: I've never seen one of these before and then TWO of them were in the impatients, buzzing around. I also thought they were baby hummingbirds. One of the oddest and most interesting moths I have ever seen... and very pretty! So that is 2 California sightings, and from what I can tell they don't belong here. Hmmm. Positive art_n_anna On Apr 27, 2008, art_n_anna from San Marcos, CA wrote: ... and one in San Marcos, CA, on the same day! I thought it was a different, smaller, variety of hummingbird, but not with those attennae! Positive btonsch On Jul 17, 2008, btonsch from Pittsburgh, PA wrote: I was out walking one day and couldn't believe what I saw: A strange moth-like creature feeding on a butterfly bush! I couldn't take my eyes off it! I knew it was some sort of moth or butterfly I had never seen before. To me, It looked like a flying shrimp! I logged onto Dave's garden to hopefully find out what this thing was, and needless to say I did, and am now a member. This moth is so strange and beautiful! I love it! Positive shtoll On Jul 28, 2008, shtoll from Indianapolis, IN wrote: I saw this moth last night (7/27/08 - Near 75th/Oaklandon, Indianapolis - near Geist. Awesome moth. I happened to be 2 feet at eye level from it at 9:30 pm. Fairly dark and the moth was awesome. I thought it was a bat and then a moth then a hummingbird. I never heard or seen one in action. Truly awesome to watch. Is this moth rare or anything? Positive kimpaige On Jul 28, 2008, kimpaige from Orlando, FL wrote: We saw it when we were visiting our family home in Hermann, MO. It fooled us too! I thought it was quite beautiful and unusual - even after we figured out it was not a hummingbird. It really seemed to like hollyhocks. Positive Sneirish On Jul 28, 2008, Sneirish from Swansea, MA (Zone 6b) wrote: This awesome little guy fooled me last year into thinking he was the first hummingbird in my garden. My "smarty-pants" sister set me straight. So I was definitely ready and waiting for him to hit the Butterfly Bush again this year. And there he was on Friday and again today. I could ony get a back view photo, but it's still cool to have him around. Positive nicolel On May 27, 2009, nicolel from Paxton, MA wrote: I spent 15 minutes sitting next to one of my hanging plants on Memorial Day trying to figure out what I was seeing. My sister and I couldn't wait to Google this fascinating creature! It had clear wings with brown stripes on its body. Hopefully, it will make a return appearance. Positive burg1111 On Jun 28, 2009, burg1111 from Hollywood, FL wrote: Just saw one last night hovering around the Red Firespike in the butterfly garden. My husband and I were fascinated! It was bright orange, but I couldn't get a good sighting on its wings. It buzzed right over my head, I had to duck so as to not get smacked. For a few hours we thought we had a hummingbird, but DG has set me straight. Super cool though! I really hope it comes back. We saw it at night though, not during the day. Neutral kathy_tss On Jul 11, 2009, kathy_tss from Portage, WI wrote: Saw this little guy zipping around the catmint & thought it was a hummingbird but - the antennae & legs just didn't look right. I remembered seeing info on the sphinx moth & started there trying to find the correct name. He was definitely more interesting than the buzzumbly bees that usually frequent this plant! Positive mjglisson On Aug 5, 2009, mjglisson from Winterville, NC wrote: August 4th was my first encounter with the hummingbird moth. I had never seen such a creature. We thought it was a bird at first but further research gave us the correct information. We were visiting Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson when we spotted the odd creature. My friend thought it was a hummingbird but I thought it was a bug. I didn't argue the point because I didn't know either but I had to know and thanks to this site I got my curiosity satisfied. We attempted several pictures but they are REALLY FAST. Neutral kabmiller On Sep 11, 2009, kabmiller from Greensboro, NC wrote: We saw these in our garden and after watching it for a while realized it must be a moth. I always thought moths came out at night and didn't realize they drink nectar. These are fun to watch. We got some great pictures. They don't seem to be too afraid of humans! We live in Greensboro, NC.

By DiOhio By DiOhio By bsharf By henryr10 By PanamonCreel By TomH3787 By bigcityal There are a total of 33 photos. Click here to view them all!