4 ms·
One of those moths is this guy, who (in flight, not so much in still images) looks and sounds like a miniature hummingbird: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummin
by rob74 2mo ago
One of those moths is this guy, who (in flight, not so much in still images) looks and sounds like a miniature hummingbird: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummingbird_hawk-moth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummingbird_hawk-moth
- fyhn 2mo agoI noticed these for the first time earlier this summer. Incredible insects! They really do give a hummingbird impression.
- thaumasiotes 2mo agohttps://satwcomic.com/two-birds-in-the-hand https://satwcomic.com/two-birds-in-the-hand
- barrenko 2mo agoVery common around my mom's house.
- VMG 2mo agorare instance where the German name Taubenschwänzchen ('little dove-tail') is nicer than the English name
- rob74 2mo agoThat reminds me that people who hear the word for butterfly (Schmetterling) in German for the first time usually think it sounds extremely violent. Ok, then again, "butterfly" sounds slightly disgusting if you think about it. But TIL that they actually have a similar root: the "Schmetter-" doesn't come from smashing, but from "Schmetten", a word derived from the Slavic "smetana" (cream). Apparently butterflies got their name from the popular belief that witches could turn into butterflies to steal milk or cream (and probably also other dairy products?).
- 317070 2mo agoFor many people, it is the other way around. It is very remarkable that there is a bird, which looks so much like a big version of this butterfly! After all, in Europe these butterflies are commonplace, but I've never seen the American bird in my life.
- neutronicus 2mo agoFinding hawk moth caterpillars on my tomato plant was one of the bigger wtfs of my adult life
- nkozyra 2mo agoHonestly you're lucky there were any leaves left. You must have caught it within two or three hours after its arrival. In the US we have similar hawk moths; the tomato hornworm also looks like a hummingbird when it reaches maturity.
- empyrrhicist 2mo agoOnce I started leaving just the ones with parasitoid wasp eggs on their backs in the garden, I completely stopped having problems with these guys.
- jacobolus 2mo agoThe "hornworm" caterpillars leave amazing poops behind. They look like (not so) little green grenades. Their moths are important pollinators of some nice native flowers.
- neutronicus 2mo agoWhen I noticed them they were covered in wasp pupae, so maybe that slowed them down. I'm in the Eastern US, btw.
- 725686 2mo agoNever understood why they are called hummingbirds. They sound more like squeekingbirds to me.