Another gift this morning….a hummingbird moth or a white-lined sphinx moth.
I heard this guy in the skylight of the kitchen last night but I couldn’t get him to come down so I could see what sort of moth he was. This morning as I was sipping my morning cup of coffee, he buzzed right over to collect some nectar from the vase of flowers on my kitchen table. Can you believe that? We all watched as he hovered around the flowers and then up over the table. This was our first experience with a hummingbird moth and it was fantastic.
He flew up to the ceiling and landed in the corner. Please excuse the really ugly background for this beautiful moth. We re in the middle remodeling our living room and he landed right in the dusty corner where we are sheetrocking….of course.
I pulled out my Handbook of Nature Study and I was surprised to find that there is a complete section on hummingbird and sphinx moths, pages 320-325.
“The have long, rather narrow, strong wings which enable them to fly with extraordinary rapidity. …Their colors show most harmonious combinations and most exquisite contrasts; the pattern, although often complex, shows perfect refinement…..Most of the sphinx moths have remarkably long tongues, which are sometimes twice the length of the body.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 321
This was a very interesting insect to read about and I will be on the look out now for more of them. I read in the Handbook that they especially like petunias, morning glories, and nasturtiums which are all planted in my new garden from the spring!
Another gift….thank you.
Thank you for having such an inspiring blog. I look forward to reading more about nature. I voted mammals, but any of the subjects would be nice.
This wonderful color picture is great. A couple of weeks ago our boys found one of those ulgy tomato horn worms on my mother’s honeysuckle vine.We whipped out the Handbook of Nature Study and found out it was actually the caterpillar of the White Sphinx Moth. This turned into a week project for our guys with observation, drawing, and reading the entire section aloud. Now they actually have a real picture to add to their memory bank. Thanks.
How awesome. Right now in our classroom we have a sphinx moth cocoon waiting to come out. We raised him from a baby tobacco hornworm. It should be any day now.
Your moth is the same family as the one I posted about! I also wanted to let you know we linked up a post my daughter wrote on the sunflowers we planted a while back (we used that Mr. Linky on #16). I’ll put it here, too: “Sunflowers, at last”.
I am just so excited that I found this blog. I can’t wait to be continually encouraged in this area I find way too neglected in my supposedly Charlotte Mason homeschool!
Also, please come by my blog-warming party! I’ve just started a new blog and even have a contest to celebrate.
See ya soon,
Amy
Trujillo, Peru
Would you believe we had the same moth visit us last night?(Okay mabye not the “same” one… but the same type) I’ve never seen one before or even heard of it. The kids actually squealed “Is it a hummingbird?” It was flying all over our kitchen (we left the screen door open and have moths galour lol, but this one by far surpassed all the others) We looked it up and identified it on the net before bed last night. Imagine my surprise to see another one here.
Blessings
I was out catching Japanese beetles to feed to our two toads and caught a hummingbird moth. We observed it for a while and then let it go. I find them fascinating too.
Took this pic last night at dusk, thought I’d share…
http://s699.photobucket.com/albums/vv356/DeborahG17/?action=view¤t=mothbug.jpg
Deborah! Great photo…loved it.
Barb-Harmony Art Mom