A brief essay on hummingbird moths

A brief essay on hummingbird moths

Many a person has marveled over tiny “hummingbirds” visiting their flowers but hit a brick wall when trying to identify them. Leafing through a bird field guide won’t help. One needs a moth guide to put a name to these “hummers.”

The source of their fascination – and confusion – are hummingbird clearwing moths. These insects represent a fascinating case of convergent evolution. Just as real hummingbirds do, these lepidopteran speedsters specialize in extracting nectar from flowers while on the wing. Thus, they have developed many of the characteristics of real hummingbirds and look much like them.

In Ohio, there are two species: hummingbird clearwing moth (Hemaris thysbe) and snowberry clearwing moth (Hemaris diffinis). Both are common and found statewide. The former is slightly larger, suffused with reddish on the wings and body, and has yellowish legs. Snowberry clearwings are blacker with dark legs. They belong to the sphinx moth family, which includes about 53 species in Ohio.

I recently visited Kamama Prairie in Adams County, a gorgeous property owned by the Arc of Appalachia. It is floristically diverse and contains many rare plant species. My aim this trip was to photograph botanical gems like scaly blazing-star, false aloe and grooved flax.

A big patch of wild bergamot near the parking lot caught my eye. This common mint is a magnet for pollinators, and these plants had attracted the usual complement of bumblebees, myriad smaller native bees and others. But what stopped me in my tracks were hummingbird moths. Up to a dozen were in view simultaneously.

Not one to miss good photo ops, my focus shifted from plants to moths. Both hummingbird clearwing and snowberry clearwing moths were present, although the former outnumbered the latter. They’re surprisingly difficult to photograph well. To say hummingbird moths are fleet of wing would be an understatement. They seldom tarry long, and at full whirl can beat their wings a remarkable 85 times a second. In comparison, a ruby-throated hummingbird normally generates about 55 flaps per second. Fast camera work is required to freeze the action, and I worked at shutter speeds ranging from 1/4000 to 1/8000 of a second.

I knew a big patch of the rare (in Ohio) tall larkspur grew in the prairie, and before long, I headed that way. The statuesque larkspur can grow to 5 feet or more in height and are crowned with elongate racemes containing dozens of beautiful flowers.

Hummingbird moths are also smitten with larkspur, and I didn’t have long to wait for opportunities to photograph them visiting the flowers. It’s amazing to watch a moth approach a flower, unfurl its amazingly long proboscis, and deftly plumb the depths of the corolla, rapidly locating the nectar reward.

One need not visit a remote Adams County prairie to see hummingbird moths. It’s easy to entice them to your own property, even in urban and suburban environments. All that’s needed is a bit of botanical magic.

The caterpillars of hummingbird moths feed mostly on members of the honeysuckle family, but not nasty non-native invasives such as Amur or Japanese honeysuckles. Good natives that are easy to find in the nursery trade include various viburnums, and my favorite is arrowwood viburnum (Viburnum dentatum). A particularly showy option is trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), a vining plant with stunning orange-red flowers that also lure real hummingbirds. Coralberry (Symphoricarpos albus) and dwarf honeysuckle (Diervilla lonicera) are also great host plants.

Once appropriate host plants are established, all one needs are good nectar plants for the moths. In addition to the aforementioned wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa), others include bee-balm (Monarda didyma), various native phloxes (spotted phlox, also known as Phlox maculata, is a great one) and wood mints in the genus Blephilia.

Naturalist Jim McCormac writes a column for The Dispatch on the first, third and fifth Sundays of the month. He also writes about nature at www.jimmccormac.blogspot.com.